Azumaya no amari ni mo furu shigure kana tare ka wa shiranu kaminazuki to wa

東屋のあまりにも降る時雨かな
誰かは知らぬ神無月とは

Roma-ji: Azumaya no amari ni mo furu shigure kana tare ka wa shiranu kaminazuki to wa
English Translation: Off the cottage eaves,
all too heavily it falls,
the rain of winter!
who is there who does not know
that this is the godless month?
Meaning: How the winter rain pours down, far too much, off the very edge of the cottage eaves. Who could fail to know that this is the tenth month, the godless month?
Commentary: Winter Poems 503

Headnote: "When composing poems on the winter rain"
This was composed when the poet was writing poems on the winter rain. Seeing the rain pour ceaselessly off the eaves of a cottage, he says that with rain like this, no one could fail to know it is the tenth month. The tenth month of the old calendar, kaminazuki, was the season of winter rain, and the device is that the heavy rain itself tells everyone the month.
The second line draws on the word amari from the saibara song Azumaya, which sings of a man standing drenched by the drip from the eaves of a cottage.

First line, “azumaya no”: an azumaya is a simple building with eaves sloping down on all four sides.
Second line, “amari ni mo furu”: amari is a pivot word meaning both the edge of the eaves of the cottage and all too much.
Third line, “shigure kana”: kana is exclamatory, and the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “tare ka wa shiranu”: ka wa is a rhetorical question particle, who would not know, meaning everyone knows.
Fifth line, “kaminazuki to wa”: kaminazuki is another name for the tenth month, the season of winter rain; this line stands in inversion to the fourth.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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