tabigoromo yowa no katashiki saesaete nonaka no io ni yuki furinikeri
In my traveller’s garb At midnight a single spread sleeve Is deeply chill, indeed Around my hut upon the plains Snow has fallen.[i]
584
[i] See: In a hundred poem sequence: さむしろのよはの衣手さえさえてはつ雪しろしをかのべの松 samushiro no / yowa no koromode / saesaete / hatsuyuki shiroshi / oka no be no matsu ‘Alone in my meagre bedding, / My nightgown’s sleeves / Are deeply chill, indeed; / The first snows lie white / Upon the pines along the hillside.’ Princess Shokushi (Shinkokinshū VI: 662)
tabigoromo uraganashikaru yūgure no susono no tsuyu ni akikaze zo fuku
In my traveller’s garb and Sick at heart Of an evening, as Across the meadows on the slopes dewdrops Drift upon the autumn wind! [i]
575
[i] See: 旅ごろもうらがなしさにあかしかね草の枕は夢もむすばず tabigoromo / uraganashisa ni / akashikane / kusa no makura wa / yume mo musabazu ‘In my traveller’s garb / My heart-sickness / I cannot lift, for / My grassy pillow / Brings no dreams, at all…’ Hikaru Genji (Genji monogatari 223); and: たびごろもうらがなしかるあさぢふによはのしぐれよいかにせよとぞ tabigoromo / uraganashikaru / asajū ni / yowa no shigure yo / ika ni seyo to zo ‘In my traveller’s garb and / Sad at heart among / The clumps of cogon grass, / O, midnight shower, / Tell me, what I am I to do?’ Jakuchō (Sumiyoshi-sha uta’awase kaō ni-nen 54)
narashiba no tabi no iori ni otozurete shigure mo ima zo yama megurisuru
Oak boughs make My traveller’s hut, where I am visited by the sound of Showers—they, too, now Are on pilgrimage through the mountains.[1]
Shōkaku 53
Right
たびごろもうらがなしかるあさぢふによはのしぐれよいかにせよとぞ
tabigoromo uraganashikaru asajū ni yowa no shigure yo ika ni seyo to zo
In my traveller’s garb and Sad at heart among The clumps of cogon grass, O, midnight shower, Tell me, what I am I to do?[2]
Jakuchō 54
While both Left and Right sound pleasant, I make the Left the winner, because it sounds slightly more moving at present, with a traveller’s hut being visited by showers.
[1]Alluding to: Composed when caught in a shower, while making a pilgrimage to one hundred temples in Higashiyama. もろともに山めぐりするしぐれかなふるにかひなき身とはしらずや morotomo ni / yamamegurisuru / shigure kana / furu ni kainaki / mi to wa shirazu ya ‘Together with me / On my mountain pilgrimage are / The showers! / ‘Tis pointless to fall / On my sorry self, don’t you know!’ Master of the Left Capital Office Michimasa (SKS IV: 149)
[2] Alluding to: 旅ごろもうらがなしさにあかしかね草の枕は夢もむすばず tabigoromo / uraganashisa ni / akashikane / kusa no makura wa / yume mo musubazu ‘In my traveller’s garb / My heart-sickness / I cannot lift, for / My grassy pillow / Brings no dreams, at all…’ Hikaru Genji (Genji monogatari 223)
