Yama fukami ochite tsumoreru momijiba no kawakeru ue ni shigure furu nari - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山深み落ちて積もれる紅葉葉の
乾ける上に時雨降るなり

Roma-ji: Yama fukami ochite tsumoreru momijiba no kawakeru ue ni shigure furu nari
English Translation: So deep in the hills,
where they have fallen and lie heaped,
the maple leaves—
upon their dry and brittle tops
I hear the winter showers fall.
Meaning: So deep are these mountains: upon the dry crimson leaves that have fallen and piled up, I can hear the winter showers falling.
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 144

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
From a hermitage deep in the mountains, the poet catches the sound of showers striking dry fallen leaves. The auxiliary “nari” shows that he grasps the unseen scene outside by sound alone, and the stillness of winter comes vividly alive.
Fujiwara no Kiyosuke’s Fukuro-zōshi records that when Nōin asked Fujiwara no Nagatō how to compose poetry, Nagatō offered this very poem as the model, a sign of the esteem it enjoyed from the start.

First line, “yama fukami”: the stem of “fukashi” with the suffix “mi,” “because the mountains are deep.”
Second line, “ochite tsumoreru”: “ru” is the attributive of the stative “ri,” “fallen and lying heaped.” The verb “to pile up” carries on into 156, “yuki zo tsumoreru,” and 159, “toshi no tsumoru,” later in the book.
Third line, “momijiba no”: the leaves that scattered in the preceding poem now lie heaped on the ground.
Fourth line, “kawakeru ue ni”: “on top of the dry leaves,” suggesting the sound of raindrops on brittle leaves.
Fifth line, “shigure furu nari”: “nari” infers from sound. Poem 150 ends with the same words; here the showers are known by sound, there by the clouding of the moon, forming a pair.
Author: Ōe no Yoshitoki
Source: Shika Wakashu
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