Kawayashiro shino ni orihae hosu koromo ika ni hoseba ka nanuka hizaran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

河社しのにおりはへ干す衣
いかに干せばか七日干ざらん

Roma-ji: Kawayashiro shino ni orihae hosu koromo ika ni hoseba ka nanuka hizaran
English Translation: At the river shrine,
stretched out long and ceaselessly,
the robes hung to dry—
how is it they're being dried
that seven days they stay wet?
Meaning: At the river shrine, the robes are stretched out long and ceaselessly to dry—how can it be that, however they are hung, they stay wet for seven days?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1915

Headnote: "Composed on summer kagura for a screen in the Engi era."
This is the second of the poems on festivals for the gods painted on screens, and the closing poem of Book Nineteen. It wonders how the robes stretched out long and ceaselessly to dry at the river shrine can stay wet for seven days. According to the headnote, it was composed on a scene of summer kagura painted on a screen in the Engi era of Emperor Daigo. Through a question, it leaves a vivid impression of the cloth stretched out for the rite by the river.
The author, Ki no Tsurayuki, was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū. He is known as the writer of its kana preface.
A kawayashiro, or river shrine, was a summer rite in which a platform was built by or over a river, the gods were worshipped there, and kagura was performed.

The first line, "kawayashiro," is the site of the summer rite of worshipping the gods by the river.
The second line, "shino ni orihae," means "stretched out long and ceaselessly"; "shino ni" means "ceaselessly," and "orihae" means "stretched out at length."
The third line, "hosu koromo," means "the robes hung to dry," and the poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "ika ni hoseba ka," means "how is it that they are dried?" The particle "ka" is taken up in the last line.
The last line, "nanuka hizaran," means "that they stay wet for seven days?" The "ka" is closed by the attributive of the conjectural "ran" in kakari-musubi. Poem 1869 of this book is also Tsurayuki's poem on kagura; against that poem of frost at winter kagura, the book closes with a poem of summer kagura by the river. Whereas the opening poem, poem 1852, began with the little pine of the New Year's Day of the Rat, the book closes with a summer rite, so that the book of poems on the gods begins and ends with scenes of seasonal sacred observances.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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