Shigure ni mo tsuyu ni mo arade nutaru yo wa ayashiku nururu tamakura no sode - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

時雨にも露にもあらてぬたる夜は
あやしくぬるゝ手枕の袖

Roma-ji: Shigure ni mo tsuyu ni mo arade nutaru yo wa ayashiku nururu tamakura no sode
English Translation: Not from autumn showers,
nor yet from the dew, and yet
on this night we slept,
how strangely it has grown so wet,
this sleeve that pillowed you
Meaning: Neither the winter showers nor the dew are to blame, yet on this night we lay together, how strangely wet it has become, the sleeve I gave you for a pillow.
Commentary: 25 The Sleeve Beneath My Head

In the tenth month, after the tenth day, the prince came to Izumi Shikibu. The inner rooms were dark and eerie, so they lay down near the veranda, and he spoke to her of every tender thing, and his words were not in vain. Looking out, she saw the moon clouded over and early winter showers falling, as though the scene had been deliberately arranged to be moving. Her troubled heart felt strangely chilled. Watching her, the prince thought tenderly, "People say only bad things about her, yet how strange: here she is, like this." She lay pretending to sleep, lost in troubled thoughts, and the prince gently roused her.
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu.
On that night of winter showers, rousing her as she lay troubled, the prince offered her this poem.
Everything felt unbearable to her and she could not bring herself to answer; tears only fell in the moonlight. Watching her with deep feeling, the prince said, "Why do you not answer? Are you displeased that I said something foolish?" When she replied, "I cannot say why, but my heart is in turmoil. It is not that your words did not reach me," he said jokingly, "Very well, test me, and see whether there is ever a time I forget 'the sleeve that pillowed you.'" Feeling sorry that she seemed to have no one to rely on, the next morning he wrote, "How are you at this moment?" and she replied with "Kesa no ma wa ima wa hinuran yume bakari nuru to mietsuru tamakura no sode."

The opening lines mean "not because of the winter showers nor the dew," with a negative connective; taking in the scene of showers that night, he denies that rain or dew has wet the sleeve. The third line means "on the night we lay together."
The lower verses mean "how strangely wet is the sleeve of my arm-pillow," ending on a noun. An arm-pillow is one's arm offered as a pillow; the sleeve of the arm he gave her is wet with her tears. The poem beautifully renders the tears she would not speak of as the dampness of his sleeve, and from then on "the sleeve of the arm-pillow" became a phrase the two exchanged again and again.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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