Narukami no shibashi ugokite sora kumori ame mo furanan kimi tomarubeku - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

鳴る神のしばし動きて空曇り
雨も降らなん君とまるべく

Roma-ji: Narukami no shibashi ugokite sora kumori ame mo furanan kimi tomarubeku
English Translation: If the thunder god
would rumble for a while,
and the sky cloud over,
and the rain come falling too,
so that you might stay with me.
Meaning: If only the thunder would rumble awhile, the sky cloud over, and the rain fall too, so that you would stay here with me.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 826

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem wishes that thunder would rumble, the sky cloud over, and rain fall, so that the beloved would stay instead of going home. It sings of an earnest heart that longs even for a thunderstorm in the single wish to keep the lover from leaving.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a court poet of the Asuka period revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. Many Man'yōshū poems are included in the Shūishū under Hitomaro's name.
A similar poem is included in Book Eleven of the Man'yōshū.

First line, "narukami no," means "the thunder."
Second line, "shibashi ugokite," means "rumbling for a while."
Third line, "sora kumori," means "the sky clouding over."
Fourth line, "ame mo furanan," means "may the rain fall too," with "nan" a wish directed at another and a caesura here. Where 797 resents the rain that keeps the lover away and 824 makes rain a figure of love's disorder, this poem wishes for rain that would keep the lover, reversing the feelings about rain.
Final line, "kimi tomarubeku," means "so that you may stay," inverted to show the purpose of the wish in the fourth line.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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