Obotsukana itsuka harubeki wabibito no omou kokoro ya samidare no sora - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

おぼつかないつか晴るべきわび人の
思ふ心やさみだれの空

Roma-ji: Obotsukana itsuka harubeki wabibito no omou kokoro ya samidare no sora
English Translation: How uncertain it is,
when will it ever clear?
Is the troubled heart
of one who lives in sorrow
this sky of summer rain?
Meaning: How uncertain it is; when will it ever clear? Is this sky of summer rain the very heart of one who lives in sorrow, thrown into turmoil?
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 179

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on the summer rains when presenting a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Like the preceding poem, this was composed on "the summer rains" for the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence. With no knowing when it will clear, the poet feels uneasy, and wonders whether this sky of endless rain is the very heart of a sorrowing person thrown into turmoil. Pivoting on "samidare," summer rain and "sa-midare," disorder, the poem joins a sky that will not clear with a heart that will not clear, expressing the gloom of the long rains as the sorrow of the human heart.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A central poet of Emperor Horikawa's circle, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at Retired Emperor Shirakawa's command and wrote the treatise Toshiyori Zuinō. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "obotsukana": "how uncertain," an exclamation using the stem of the adjective. The poem pauses here.
Second line, "itsuka harubeki": "when will it clear?" overlaying the clearing of the sky with the clearing of the heart.
Third line, "wabibito no": "of one who lives in sorrow and loneliness."
Fourth line, "omou kokoro ya": the interrogative "ya" asks whether the brooding heart is what the sky is.
Fifth line, "samidare no sora": "samidare" is a pivot word for the early summer rains and "sa-midare," a heart in disorder. Poems 184 and 189 of this book also end with "samidare no sora."
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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