露を重みまがきの菊の干しもあへず
晴るれば曇る村雨の空
晴るれば曇る村雨の空
- Roma-ji
-
Tsuyu o omomi magaki no kiku no hoshi mo aezu harureba kumoru murasame no sora
- English Translation
-
With the weight of dew
the chrysanthemums by the fence
have no time to dry—
clearing, then clouding once again,
the sky of passing showers.
- Meaning
- Heavy with dew, the chrysanthemums by the fence never have time to dry—under a sky of passing showers that clears only to cloud again.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 293
Headnote: "On seeing the garden chrysanthemums when it was raining"
Looking at the chrysanthemums in his garden in the rain, the poet sees that, weighed down with dew, they never have time to dry, under a sky of passing showers that clears only to cloud again. He overlays the unsettled sky of late autumn with the chrysanthemums kept forever wet by rain and dew.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on seeing chrysanthemums on a night when it was raining." The Ruijū and Teika texts give the last line as yoi no murasame, and because this variant appears alongside the text in the source consulted, it has been taken as murasame no sora in light of the note.
Line 1, tsuyu o omomi, means "since the dew is heavy," a noun with o followed by an adjective stem with mi, giving a reason.
Line 2 means "of the chrysanthemums by the fence," the same as line 4 of the preceding poem, 292.
Line 3, "with no time to dry them," is hypermetric.
Line 4 means "clearing only to cloud again," showing the changeable sky of late autumn.
Line 5 ends on a noun, naming the sky of passing showers. The preceding poem sang of dew on chrysanthemums on a moonlit night, this one of dew on chrysanthemums in the rain, pairing moon and rain.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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