Nezame shite tare ka kiku ran kono koro no ko no ha ni kakaru yowa no shigure o - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

寝覚めして誰か聞くらんこの頃の
木の葉にかかる夜半の時雨を

Roma-ji: Nezame shite tare ka kiku ran kono koro no ko no ha ni kakaru yowa no shigure o
English Translation: Who else lies awake
and listens, I wonder, now,
in these days of ours,
to the showers of midnight
falling on the autumn leaves?
Meaning: Who else, I wonder, has woken in the night and is listening to the midnight showers falling on the leaves in these days?
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 402

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Who else, the poet asks, has woken in the night and is listening to the midnight showers falling on the leaves these days? The poem holds both the loneliness of lying awake listening to the showers and a wish that someone else might be hearing the same sound.
The author, "Uma no Naishi," was a lady poet of the mid-Heian period, said to be the daughter of Minamoto no Tokiakira, Provisional Head of the Right Office of Horses. She served Empress Kōshi, consort of Emperor En'yū, and Empress Teishi, consort of Emperor Ichijō, among others. She is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the middle period.
Other poems of hearing showers on waking in the night follow, such as 403 and 417 of this book.

First line, "nezame shite": "nezame" is waking suddenly in the night, the same scene as "yowa no nezame ni" in the next poem, 403.
Second line, "tare ka kiku ran": the interrogative "ka" closes with the attributive "ran," "who might be listening?" The poem pauses here, and the order is inverted with the lower verse.
Third line, "kono koro no": "of these days," the present season of showers.
Fourth line, "ko no ha ni kakaru": "kakaru" is to fall upon. Like "nara no hiroha ni" in the preceding poem, 401, it sings of showers on leaves.
Fifth line, "yowa no shigure o": "yowa" is midnight. The object of "kiku" in the second line is held to the end by inversion, leaving a lingering echo.
Author: Uma no Naishi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Shimo saete kareyuku ono no okabe naru nara no hiroha ni shigure furu nari
Next Poem: Oto ni sae tamoto o nurasu shigure kana maki no itaya no yowa no nezame ni