Hyakunin Isshu

1.

秋の田の
かりほの庵の
苫をあらみ

わが衣手は
露にぬれつつ

Translation-

Coarse the rush-mat roof
Sheltering the harvest-hut
Of the autumn rice-field;

And my sleeves are growing wet
With the moisture dripping through.

Tenchi Tenno (poet)

Comments:

The roof of the rice hut is made of rough material. So the rain drops are pouring on my sleeve. And my sleeves are growing wetter and wetter.

And in the interval between two rain drops, I am waiting for you.

This one is typical love poem, written by the poet for his beloved, portraying a theme of longing. The poet is yearning for his lover as raindrops slowly moisten his sleeves. This is actually a very popular poem in Japan, and undoubtedly, the first from this beautiful collection. I came across this poem for the first time through a bl drama, called douukyusei, and immediately fell in love with both, the drama and the poem.

The poem meant so much to me that I decided to collect all 100 poems of Hyakunin Isshu in one place, aka this book.

In the drama, this poem was reminded on rainy days when both boys would walk back home together, the taller holding the umbrella. But the one holding the umbrella would always try to give more shelter to his beloved. And thus his sleeves would often become wet because of the raindrops (moisture) seeping in from the side that was exposed to the rain. It's such a simplistic expression of love, yet speaks greater than words ever could.