Oto ni sae tamoto o nurasu shigure kana maki no itaya no yowa no nezame ni - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

音にさへ袂を濡らす時雨かな
槙の板屋の夜半の寝覚めに

Roma-ji: Oto ni sae tamoto o nurasu shigure kana maki no itaya no yowa no nezame ni
English Translation: Even by its sound
it wets the sleeves of my robe,
this winter shower,
beneath a roof of cedar boards,
waking alone at midnight
Meaning: Even its mere sound wets my sleeves, this winter shower, when I wake at midnight beneath a roof of cedar boards.
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 403

Headnote: "Composed on winter showers at a poetry contest held at the house of the Hosshōji Lay Priest and Former Grand Minister when he was Palace Minister"
Composed on winter showers at a poetry contest at the house of Fujiwara no Tadamichi, the Hosshōji Lay Priest and Former Grand Minister, when he was Palace Minister. Waking at midnight under a roof of cedar boards, the poet says, the showers wet his sleeves by their mere sound. What wets his sleeves is not rain but the tears the sound of the showers draws from him, expressing the loneliness of waking in the night.
The author, "Minamoto no Sadanobu (priestly name Dōshun)," was a poet of the cloistered-rule period who took the tonsure and the name Dōshun. He is known to have taken part in poetry contests at Fujiwara no Tadamichi's house, but little else is known of his life.
Taking up the showers heard on waking in the preceding poem, 402, this poem too sings of showers in the night. The three poems from this one through 405 are linked by words such as the board roof and leaking or not leaking, all singing of showers heard from within the house.

First line, "oto ni sae": "sae," "even," shows that the showers wet him not in fact but by their sound alone.
Second line, "tamoto o nurasu": "tamoto" are the sleeves of a robe. What wets them is tears, weeping drawn out by the sound of the showers. 417 of this book also sings of showers wetting the sleeves in "morade mo hito no sode nurashikere."
Third line, "shigure kana": the exclamatory "kana," and the poem pauses here, its order inverted with the lower verse.
Fourth line, "maki no itaya no": a "maki no itaya" is a humble house roofed with cedar boards. The next poem, 404, and 444 of this book have the same phrase.
Fifth line, "yowa no nezame ni": it closes with the same words as "nezame shite" and "yowa no shigure o" in the preceding poem, 402.
Author: Minamoto no Sadanobu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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