classic waka stream

数ならぬ身をうき雲の晴れぬかな
さすがに家の風は吹けども
Roma-ji

Kazu naranu mi o ukigumo no harenu kana sasuga ni ie no kaze wa fukedomo

English Translation
This worthless self,
how the clouds of sorrow
will not clear away,
though the wind of my house,
as one would expect, still blows
Meaning
The drifting clouds of sorrow over this worthless self of mine will not clear away, though the wind of my family's learning still blows, as it should.
Commentary
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1083

Headnote: "Composed as a poem expressing my grievances when the Right Commander Sanefusa, while still a middle captain, had fifteen poems composed"
This poem was composed as a poem of grievance when Fujiwara no Sanefusa, later right commander, had fifteen poems composed while he was still a middle captain. The drifting clouds of sorrow over my worthless self will not clear, though the wind of my house blows, he says. Born into a family whose calling is learning, he laments that though the family's tradition has surely come down to him, the gloom of his misfortune does not clear, like drifting clouds. In the pairing of a wind that should blow the clouds away yet fails to clear them lies his grief at a lot unworthy of his family name.
The author, "Nakahara no Moronao," came from the Nakahara family, whose hereditary learning was the study of the classics, and served as senior secretary of the council of state.
It shares words of self-abasement with "kazu naranedomo" in the fifth line of 1077 and "kazu narade" in the first line of 1079 of this book.

First line, "kazu naranu": "of no account."
Second line, "mi o ukigumo no": "uki" is a pivot word joining "uki," sorrowful, and "uki," drifting, overlapping his sorrow over himself with drifting clouds.
Third line, "harenu kana": "they do not clear," with "haru," to clear, an associated word of the clouds. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "sasuga ni ie no": "sasuga ni" means "as one would expect, after all."
Fifth line, "kaze wa fukedomo": "ie no kaze," the wind of the house, is the tradition of learning handed down in the family, and using "wind," an associated word of the clouds, he closes by saying that though the wind blows the clouds do not clear.
Author
Nakahara no Moronao
Source
Senzai Wakashu
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