Shirakumo no kiyadoru mine no komatsubara eda shigekere ya hi no hikari minu - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

白雲の来宿る峰の小松原
枝しげけれや日の光見ぬ

Roma-ji: Shirakumo no kiyadoru mine no komatsubara eda shigekere ya hi no hikari minu
English Translation: White clouds come to rest
upon the peak where grows
a grove of young pines—
is it the thick boughs that keep them
from ever seeing the sun
Meaning: The grove of young pines on the peak where white clouds come to rest—is it because the boughs grow so thick that they never see the light of the sun?
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems III 1245

Headnote: "When, out of favor with the times and resenting his lot, he had shut himself away."
The poet asks whether the grove of young pines on the peak where white clouds rest never sees the sun because the boughs are so thick. Likening himself, out of favor, to the young pines and the emperor's grace to sunlight, he laments that the boughs spreading above keep favor from reaching him.
According to the headnote, it was composed when he had shut himself away, out of favor with the times and resenting his lot.
The poet, Fun'ya no Yasuhide, was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the Six Poetic Immortals. The Ogura Hyakunin Isshu includes his poem "Fuku kara ni aki no kusaki no shiorureba."

The first line, "Shirakumo no," means "white clouds," a figure for those on high.
The second line, "kiyadoru mine no," means "of the peak where they come to rest."
The third line, "komatsubara," means "a grove of young pines," a figure for himself of low rank. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "eda shigekere ya," means "is it because the boughs are thick," with the interrogative binding particle "ya." It figures those above who overshadow him.
The last line, "hi no hikari minu," means "they never see the sun," closing the "ya" with the attributive "minu." Sunlight stands for the emperor's favor.
Author: Fun'ya no Yasuhide
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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