木漏れ日 vs 雲漏れ日 – Tree vs cloud

Hi all, wanted to ask about the word “木漏れ日” (komorebi). I don’t know much about this phrase other than the English articles written about it. But when I try to substitute the word tree (木) with cloud (雲), I’ve been told it doesn’t quite make sense or have the same feeling. Even google translate will still say the phrase komorebi if you put in Japanese (雲漏れ日 ) –> English (kim more nichi), which perplexed me.

Questions:

* Does 木漏れ日 also encompass all light filtering? Like a cloud or through a window curtain?
* Does 雲漏れ日 even make sense?

Thank you for helping me with this.

1 comment
  1. Komorebi is basically an idiomatic expression for sunlight pouring down the plant, usually tree leaves. Usually it is either written 木漏れ日, or, less commonly, 木洩れ日. Kumomorebi is not a word that a Japanese person would use, so even though the components (kumo+more+bi) make sense, people just don’t use them together, it sounds kind of weird. For sunlight filtering through the clouds, leaving something like a tail behind, Japanese might use two words, both kango (sino-japanese words).
    光芒(こうぼう, romaji: koubou)
    or
    薄明光線 (はくめいこうせん, romaji: hakumeikousen)

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like