Inazuma wa terasanu yoi mo nakarikeri izura honoka ni mieshi kagerou - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

稲妻は照らさぬ宵もなかりけり
いづらほのかに見えしかげろふ

Roma-ji: Inazuma wa terasanu yoi mo nakarikeri izura honoka ni mieshi kagerou
English Translation: The lightning, it seems,
never fails to light the sky
on any evening;
where, then, has it gone, that glimmer,
the faint shimmer I once saw?
Meaning: There is not an evening when the lightning fails to flash. Where, then, has that faint shimmer gone, the one I glimpsed only once?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1354

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of the sequence on things of the night sky. Even lightning flashes every evening, yet the one glimpsed faintly like a shimmer is gone; the speaker asks where. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
No author is given in the text, but other texts give "Anonymous," which is followed here. It is not a poem by Sagami, author of the preceding poem.

The first line, "inazuma wa," refers to lightning flashing across the autumn night sky. Lightning was thought to ripen the rice and was sung as an autumn image.
The second line, "terasanu yoi mo," means "evenings when it does not shine."
The third line, "nakarikeri," uses "keri" of realization: "there are none, I see." The poem breaks after the third line, confirming that even lightning appears every night without fail.
In the fourth line, "izura honoka ni," "izura" asks "where?", "where has it gone?"
The last line, "mieshi kagerou," ends on a noun. The shimmer, faintly seen and soon gone, stands for the one who appeared only once. The lightning that comes every night is set against the shimmer that vanished after a single glimpse.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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