Shiguretsutsu furinishi yado no koto no ha wa kakiatsumuredo tomarazarikeri - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

時雨つつふりにし宿の言の葉は
かきあつむれど止まらざりけり

Roma-ji: Shiguretsutsu furinishi yado no koto no ha wa kakiatsumuredo tomarazarikeri
English Translation: The showers falling on,
the words of the aged house,
like leaves on the ground,
though I raked and wrote them up,
so few remained to gather.
Meaning: The leaves of words from the old house where the showers kept falling, though I raked them together and wrote them out, have not stayed with us.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1141

Headnote: "In the Tenryaku era, when the emperor called for the collected poems of Ise's house, on presenting them"
The poet says that the leaves of words from the old house where the showers kept falling, though she gathered them, had mostly not survived. The headnote shows it accompanied the presentation of Ise's personal poetry collection when Emperor Murakami ordered it sent to him. The poet Nakatsukasa was Ise's daughter, and overlaying the leaves scattered by the showers with her mother's poems scattered and lost over the years, she modestly says she could not gather them all.
The next poem, 1142, is Emperor Murakami's reply to this poem.
The author is Nakatsukasa, the daughter of Prince Atsuyoshi, son of Emperor Uda, and the poet Ise, famed as a poet like her mother. She is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "shiguretsutsu," means "as the showers keep falling," carrying on the stream of shower poems from 1138 through 1140.
Second line, "furinishi yado no," turns on the pivot word "furi," joining "furu," the showers falling, and "furu," the house growing old, so that it means "of the house grown old." It refers to the house of her mother, Ise.
Third line, "koto no ha wa," means "the leaves of words," that is, poems, with "ha," leaves, forming associated words with the showers and the fallen leaves. It shares the same words with the third line of the next poem, 1142, "koto no ha wa."
Fourth line, "kakiatsumuredo," turns on the pivot word "kaki," joining "kaku," to rake fallen leaves, and "kaku," to write poems, so that it means "though I gathered them."
Final line, "tomarazarikeri," means "they did not remain," with "zari" a negative auxiliary and "keri" a sigh of realization.
Author: Nakatsukasa
Source: Shui Wakashu
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