Wasuraruru mi o shiru sode no murasame ni tsurenaku yama no tsuki wa idekeri - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

忘らるる身を知る袖の村雨に
つれなく山の月は出でけり

Roma-ji: Wasuraruru mi o shiru sode no murasame ni tsurenaku yama no tsuki wa idekeri
English Translation: Forgotten, I know
at last my lot, and on my sleeve
the passing showers fall,
while coldly, as if nothing were,
the mountain moon has risen.
Meaning: As a passing shower falls on my sleeve, wet with the knowledge that I am forgotten, the moon has risen over the mountain, coldly indifferent.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1271

Headnote: "From a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the sixteenth poem of the sequence of love poems on the moon. While a passing shower falls on a sleeve wet with the knowledge of being forgotten, the mountain moon has risen as if nothing were amiss. According to the headnote, it is one poem from a hundred-poem sequence.
The author, "the Retired Sovereign," is Retired Emperor Go-Toba. A son of Emperor Takakura, he ruled as retired emperor after abdicating and commanded the compilation of the Shinkokinshū. "Retired Sovereign" is the title of an emperor who has abdicated and here refers to Go-Toba, the retired emperor at the time the collection was made.
The poem draws on Ariwara no Narihira's poem in Love Poems IV of the Kokinshū, "Unable to ask whether you love me or not, the rain that knows my lot falls ever harder." That poem also appears in The Tales of Ise, and "the rain that knows my lot" is rain that falls as if to make one realize one's own misfortune.

In the first line, "wasuraruru," "ruru" is passive: "to be forgotten by the beloved."
The second line, "mi o shiru sode no," draws on Narihira's "rain that knows my lot," and becomes a sleeve wet with tears at realizing one's lot.
The third line, "murasame ni," is a shower that falls hard for a while and passes. The tears wetting the sleeve are overlaid on the passing shower.
In the fourth line, "tsurenaku yama no," "tsurenaku" means "indifferently, as if nothing were the matter." The moon rising regardless of the rain of tears is overlaid with the figure of the heartless lover.
In the last line, "tsuki wa idekeri," "keri" marks realization. The poem closes on the contrast between the shower on the sleeve and the moon calmly rising. The moon that was begged to cloud over in 1270 here rises unclouded even in the rain.
Author: Go-Toba In
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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