A Hundred Verses from Old Japan · 88 of 101
87. The Priest Jaku-ren: Jaku-ren Hōshi
87
The Priest Jaku-ren
JAKU-REN HŌSHI
Murasame no Tsuyu mo mada hinu Maki no ha ni Kiri tachi-noboru Aki no yūgure.
THE rain, which fell from passing showers, Like drops of dew, still lies Upon the fir-tree needles, and The mists of evening rise Up to the autumn skies.
This verse is a good example of a picture verse, intended to call up the scene to one’s imagination. Jaku-ren was another of the great Fujiwara clan, and lived about the end of the twelfth century.
Murasame means ‘rain falling in showers, here and there’, and the illustration plainly shows it raining on one side of the house only.