Sora shiranu ame ni mo nururu waga mi kana mikasa no yama o yoso ni kikitsutsu - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

空知らぬ雨にも濡るる我が身かな
三笠の山をよそに聞きつつ

Roma-ji: Sora shiranu ame ni mo nururu waga mi kana mikasa no yama o yoso ni kikitsutsu
English Translation: By a rain unknown
to any sky, I am drenched—
such is my lot,
as I hear from far away
of Mikasa Mountain
Meaning: I am soaked even by a rain the sky knows nothing of—my own tears—as I hear, as of something far from me, that you have gone to Mount Mikasa.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems III 715

Headnote: "When Lieutenant Sanetada left the woman he had been visiting, took up with another, and set out from there as envoy to the Kasuga Festival, the first woman wrote:"
The poet says she is wet with a rain the sky knows nothing of, that is, tears, as she hears from afar of Mount Mikasa. She voices the grief of a woman weeping as she learns secondhand that the man who left her has set out in splendor as envoy to Kasuga.
According to the headnote, Lieutenant Sanetada left the woman he had been visiting for another and then departed from there as imperial envoy to the Kasuga Festival, and the woman he had left composed this poem. The Kasuga Shrine stands at the foot of Mount Mikasa.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. According to the headnote, it is the poem of the woman Lieutenant Sanetada had left.

The first line, "Sora shiranu," means "unknown to the sky," referring to a rain not falling from the sky, that is, tears.
The second line, "ame ni mo nururu," means "drenched even by rain."
In the third line, "waga mi kana," "kana" is an exclamatory particle, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "mikasa no yama o," refers to Mount Mikasa behind the Kasuga Shrine. Its character for "kasa," a rain hat, is associated with "ame," rain, in the first two lines, evoking one drenched without a hat.
The last line, "yoso ni kikitsutsu," means "as I hear of it from afar," with "tsutsu" expressing continuation. It stands in inverted order with the third line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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