Iebito no tsukai ni arashi harusame no yokuredo ware o nurasaku omoeba

家人の使ひにあらし春雨の
避くれど我れを濡らさく思へば

Roma-ji: Iebito no tsukai ni arashi harusame no yokuredo ware o nurasaku omoeba
English Translation: From those at home
a messenger it seems to be—
this rain of spring,
for though I try to shun it,
still it drenches me, I find.
Meaning: This spring rain must be a messenger from my family, for however I try to avoid it, it keeps soaking me.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1697

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems composed at the Naki River"
The spring rain that soaks the traveler however he tries to avoid it is imagined as a messenger sent by his family. There is wit in seeing a message from home in the persistent rain.
This is the second of three poems composed at the Naki River. Taking up the thought of the household in the preceding poem, it treats the spring rain itself as their messenger.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Jitō and Monmu. This poem is taken from the Hitomaro Collection, which is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he gathered.

The first line, "from those at home," refers to the wife and family.
The second line, "a messenger it seems to be," uses rashi, a grounded conjecture, and the poem pauses here.
The third line, "this rain of spring," takes up "in the rain of spring" from 1696 and makes the rain the subject.
The fourth line, "for though I try to shun it," is concessive.
The final line, "still it drenches me, I find," uses nurasaku, a nominalized form of nurasu, and gives at the end the grounds for the conjecture in the second line.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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