ことわりの時雨れの空は雲間あれど
ながむる袖ぞ乾く間もなき
ながむる袖ぞ乾く間もなき
- Roma-ji
-
Kotowari no shigure no sora wa kumoma aredo nagamuru sode zo kawaku ma mo naki
- English Translation
-
In the autumn sky
where such showers are only natural,
the clouds still part at times;
but the sleeves of one who gazes
have no time at all to dry
- Meaning
- The autumn sky, where showers are only to be expected, still has its breaks between the clouds; but the sleeves of one who gazes in sorrow never have a moment to dry.
- Commentary
-
19 The Autumn-Shower Exchange with Lady Koshōshō
In the tenth month of Kankō 5 (1008), as the imperial visit approached, a letter arrived at the Tsuchimikado mansion from Lady Koshōshō. While Murasaki was writing her reply, an autumn shower suddenly darkened the sky, and the messenger hurried to be off. Murasaki wrote that even the look of the sky stirred her heart and added a clumsy poem, though what it was is not recorded. When it had grown dark, a reply came back from Lady Koshōshō, written on deep purple paper shaded like mist.
Lady Koshōshō was the daughter of Minamoto no Tokimichi and a niece of Michinaga's principal wife, Minamoto no Rinshi, and she served Empress Shōshi as a lady of high rank. She and Murasaki were such close companions that they later shared their quarters.
When Lady Koshōshō's poem "Kumoma naku nagamuru sora mo kakikurashi ika ni shinoburu shigure naruramu" arrived, Murasaki sent back this reply without even remembering what she had written earlier.
After this exchange the scene shifts to preparations for the day of the visit, when newly built boats are drawn up to the pond. Exchanged amid the bustle of grand ceremonies, the poems suggest how much Murasaki relied on Lady Koshōshō for comfort.
The first three lines say that the sky, where autumn showers fall as a matter of course, nonetheless has breaks between the clouds. Picking up Lady Koshōshō's "without a break in clouds" and "autumn shower," Murasaki turns them around: the sky, in fact, does clear at times.
The lower verses declare that her sleeves, as she gazes in brooding thought, have no moment to dry from tears, sealed by an emphatic construction. Echoing her friend's "gaze" and contrasting the breaks in the clouds with the sleeves that never dry, she answers that her own tears run deeper still, drawing close to her friend's feelings while confiding her own sorrow.
- Author
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Source
- Murasaki Shikibu Nikki
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