The Wednesday Muse #3 - 50 Shades of Rain

Today the prompt  is “rain”.  We all have rain in common – too much, too little, gentle spring rain, torrential summer rain, rain mixed with snow, soaking cold rain.  Walking in the rain, singin’ in the rain, dancing in the rain, playing in the rain.  We stay inside and drink soup or tea or something cozy with alcohol, read while it rains, listen to the rain on the roof before we go to sleep.  We groan at the rain when we have to walk in it to a bus or train stop and curse up a blue streak when a car goes by and SPLASH! thoroughly wets us through.

Basho wrote of rain:
spring rain
leaking through the roof
dripping from the wasp’s nest

The Japanese actually have 50+ words for rain unlike the Inuit which really do not have 100s of words for snow.  Being Japanese, their words for rain are seasonal and specific and at times, extremely artistic.  We Westerners look at rain as rain – the same rain that falls in the morning in spring is the same rain that falls at night in autumn.  Right?  Nope. The Japanese are so in tune with the changing of the seasons around them and how those seasons affect them, they created haiku – a poetic form about changing seasons, nature, and the now.  The melancholy felt when the seasons changed and climate changes took place are part of their concept of mono no aware. Here are some of the “rain” words for you:
ame –  rain
kosame –  light rain
kisame – rain that drips from tree branches
enu – misty rain
ooame – heavy rain
yokoburi – driving rain
kanu – cold winter rain
shun rin – spring rain
shun u – gentle spring rain
shuu rin – autumn rain
nagame – long rain
yuudachi  – sudden evening rain
shinotsukuame – intense rain
yulimajiri  – snow and rain
uhyou –  freezing rain
hisame – very cold rain or hail
ryokuu – summer rain
touu – winter rain
houshanouu – radioactive rain

As you can see from the brief list, the words truly do specify the rain of the moment, the season. Write a poem about rain. You can use one of the Japanese words in your poem or you describe the rain.

For inspiration I give you this music video from Darryl Hall:
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