あられ降る交野の御野の狩衣
ぬれぬ宿貸す人しなければ
ぬれぬ宿貸す人しなければ
- Roma-ji
-
Arare furu katano no mino no karigoromo nurenu yado kasu hito shi nakereba
- English Translation
-
In the falling hail
on the royal moor of Katano
my hunting cloak
is soaked—for there is no one here
to lend a roof where I’d stay dry.
- Meaning
- Hail falls on the royal hunting grounds of Katano, and my hunting cloak is drenched, for there is no one to lend me shelter where I might keep dry.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Winter Poems 152
Headnote: "Composed on falconry."
Hawking on the imperial hunting grounds of Katano, the poet is caught in hail and, with no house to shelter in, his hunting cloak is soaked. The device by which “nurenu” works as a completion looking back and as a negation looking forward drew notice from the start and is cited in works such as Toshiyori’s Treatise and the Korai fūteishō.
In this book the falling weather moves from showers to hail, and from the next poem on to snow.
First line, “arare furu”: “as hail falls,” setting the scene.
Second line, “katano no mino no”: Katano in Kawachi, a famed imperial hunting ground; “mino” is a royal moor.
Third line, “karigoromo”: the cloak worn for hunting, taken up by “nurenu” in the next line.
Fourth line, “nurenu yado kasu”: “nu” in “nurenu” reads back as the perfective, “is soaked,” and forward as the negative, “a lodging where one stays dry.” Because the word is read two ways, it is left in kana.
Fifth line, “hito shi nakereba”: emphatic “shi,” “since there is no one,” giving the reason and circling back by inversion to “nurenu.”
- Author
- Fujiwara no Nagato
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Miyama ni wa arashi ya itaku fukinuramu ajiro mo tawa ni momiji tsumoreri
- Next Poem
-
Yama fukami yaku sumigama no keburi koso yagate yukige no kumo to narikere