Onozukara oto suru hito zo nakarikeru yamameguri suru shigure narade wa

おのづから音する人ぞなかりける
山めぐりする時雨ならでは

Roma-ji: Onozukara oto suru hito zo nakarikeru yamameguri suru shigure narade wa
English Translation: Even by chance
no one has come calling here,
not a single soul,
except the rain of winter
that makes its round of the hills.
Meaning: No one, even by chance, has come to call on me, except the winter rain that makes its rounds from mountain to mountain.
Commentary: Winter Poems 502

Headnote: "Winter rain in a quiet life"
The topic is winter rain in a quiet life. No one, even by chance, visits the still mountain dwelling. The only caller is the winter rain, passing from mountain to mountain as though making the rounds. The sound of the rain on roof and eaves is likened to the sound of someone coming to call.
The loneliness of a mountain village with no visitors recurs throughout this book, as in 557, which wishes for someone to come and ask after that loneliness.

First line, “onozukara”: by chance, at random.
Second line, “oto suru hito zo”: oto su is to visit or send word. Zo is an emphatic particle that binds with the attributive keru in the third line.
Third line, “nakarikeru”: there was no one, in the attributive form required by zo; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “yamameguri suru”: yamameguri is going round from mountain to mountain, the rain moving across the hills as if a person were making the rounds.
Fifth line, “shigure narade wa”: narade wa means except for, showing that only the rain comes; this stands in inversion to the first three lines.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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