しぐれて雲のちぎれゆく支那をおもふdrizzle falling the clouds tearing away I think of China

時雨の空を、雲がちぎれながら流れていく。その行く先、兵たちのいる大陸の戦場を思う。当時「支那」と呼ばれた中国の戦線は、銃後の日本からは冬空の雲の向こうにしかなかった。Across the drizzling sky the clouds drift by, tearing into shreds. He thinks of where they are headed — the continental battlefields where the soldiers are. The front in China (then called "Shina") lay, from the home front in Japan, only somewhere beyond the winter clouds.