Iori sasu nara no kokage ni moru tsuki no kumoru to mireba shigure furu nari - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

庵さすならの木陰に漏る月の
曇ると見れば時雨降るなり

Roma-ji: Iori sasu nara no kokage ni moru tsuki no kumoru to mireba shigure furu nari
English Translation: I build my hut
in the shade of an oak, where
the moonlight leaks through;
when I see that it has clouded,
the winter showers must be falling.
Meaning: I have built a rough hut in the shade of an oak, and the moonlight filters through its leaves; when I see that light grow dim, I know the winter showers are falling.
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 150

Headnote: "Composed on the topic “Winter Showers at a Lodging on a Journey.”"
The topic sets a traveler meeting showers at an overnight lodging. Having raised a makeshift hut beneath an oak, the poet watches moonlight slipping through the leaves; when it suddenly dims, he knows the showers have begun. It is a delicate poem that senses the rain through a change in the moonlight.

First line, “iori sasu”: “sasu,” to put up a hut, a temporary lodging on the road.
Second line, “nara no kokage ni”: “in the shade of an oak.” The oak leaves of 146 and the “shade beneath the trees” of 148 recur, the moon leaking through an oak that keeps its leaves into winter.
Third line, “moru tsuki no”: moonlight spilling through gaps in the leaves.
Fourth line, “kumoru to mireba”: “when I see it cloud over,” grasping the showers by sight.
Fifth line, “shigure furu nari”: “nari” infers. The closing words match 144; there the showers are known by their sound on fallen leaves, here by the dimming of the moon.
Source: Shika Wakashu
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