Shigure ka to nezame no toko ni kikoyuru wa arashi ni taenu konoha narikeri

時雨かと寝覚めの床に聞こゆるは
嵐に堪へぬ木の葉なりけり

Roma-ji: Shigure ka to nezame no toko ni kikoyuru wa arashi ni taenu konoha narikeri
English Translation: Is it winter rain?
in my bed awake at dawn
the sound I heard was
nothing but the falling leaves
that could not withstand the storm.
Meaning: What I heard from my bed on waking, thinking it the winter rain, was only the sound of leaves that could not withstand the storm.
Commentary: Winter Poems 496

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Falling leaves at dawn"
This is the second poem on the topic of falling leaves at dawn. What the poet, lying awake at dawn, took for the sound of the winter rain turns out to be the sound of leaves falling, unable to withstand the storm. The poem mistakes the sound of falling leaves for rain and catches a sound echoing in the stillness of dawn.
Where the preceding poem treated falling leaves through the moonlight, something seen, this one treats them through sound, something heard, so the topic is divided between sight and hearing. Like 492 in this book, it also takes up the sound of rain heard on waking.

First line, “shigure ka to”: is it the winter rain, what the listener first supposed.
Second line, “nezame no toko ni”: nezame is waking in the night or at dawn, answering the dawn of the topic.
Third line, “kikoyuru wa”: what I hear, with the lower lines revealing what it really is.
Fourth line, “arashi ni taenu”: unable to withstand the storm; nu is negative.
Fifth line, “konoha narikeri”: keri marks a realization, closing on the surprise that the supposed rain was falling leaves, answering the topic.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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