Mabara naru maki no itaya ni oto wa shite moranu shigure ya ko no ha naru ran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

まばらなる槙の板屋に音はして
漏らぬ時雨や木の葉なるらん

Roma-ji: Mabara naru maki no itaya ni oto wa shite moranu shigure ya ko no ha naru ran
English Translation: On the roof of boards,
the cedar roof with its gaps,
there comes a sound,
yet the shower does not leak through:
can it be falling leaves?
Meaning: There is the sound of rain on my gappy roof of cedar boards, yet nothing leaks through. Could this shower be falling leaves?
Commentary: Book Six Winter Poems 404

Headnote: "Composed as a poem on falling leaves when a hundred-poem sequence was presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku"
Composed on the topic of falling leaves when he presented a hundred-poem sequence, the Kyūan Hyakushu, to Retired Emperor Sutoku. There is a sound like showers on the gappy cedar roof, the poet says, yet no rain leaks through, so could this shower be falling leaves? Mistaking the sound of leaves on the roof for showers, he conveys by sound how thickly the leaves are falling.
The author, "Kōtaigōgū no Daibu Shunzei," was the son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Toshitada. At the command of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa he compiled this anthology, the Senzai Wakashū. He was the father of Fujiwara no Teika, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
It places the same "maki no itaya" as the preceding poem, 403. Where that poem weeps at the sound of showers, this one delights in a sound taken for showers turning out to be leaves. The next poem, 405, takes the reverse conceit, that what seemed the sound of falling leaves was in fact showers, so the two poems form a reversed pair.

First line, "mabara naru": "full of gaps," a roof that might well let the rain in.
Second line, "maki no itaya ni": the same words as the fourth line of the preceding poem, 403.
Third line, "oto wa shite": "wa" sets "there is a sound" against the "moranu" that follows.
Fourth line, "moranu shigure ya": the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line, posing a riddle in the contradiction of "a shower that does not leak." The same word continues in "morade" in the next poem, 405, and "morade mo" in 417 of this book.
Fifth line, "ko no ha naru ran": "could it be the leaves?" solving the riddle, with "ran" as the present conjecture.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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