For the most part, I
Will not praise the shining moon—
For it is this moon
Which, when its nights gather on,
Becomes the years and our age.

Meaning

In most cases I will not admire the beautiful moon. For it is this very moon that, as its nights accumulate and become years, finally becomes the old age of human life.

Commentary

88. I Will Not Praise the Moon

Friends gathered together who were no longer especially young.
The poem was composed by one of them as he looked at the moon.

The poem takes the beautiful moon shining in the night sky and turns it into the moon of passing months and years. In earlier times there was a popular belief that “to gaze at the moon was inauspicious,” as is recorded in works such as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu. The poem can be taken almost as a kind of epigram, yet perhaps it also reflects the somewhat contrarian way of thinking characteristic of youth.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

Stars on a clear night? Or fireflies by the river? Or perhaps instead The fishing fires that are lit By the fishers where I dwell?
From the open sea, The sacred weeds they say serve As the sea god’s crown— Yet even these treasured fronds For your sake I did not spare.
If unknown to all I should die of love for her, How pointless it seems— To which god would people then Give the blame of my ill name?
Cherry blossoms now Today bloom in such fragrance— Yet who can be sure That beyond in that far place They will bloom tomorrow night?

For the most part, I Will not praise the shining moon— For it is this moon Which, when its nights gather on, Becomes the years and our age.

For the most part, I
Will not praise the shining moon—
For it is this moon
Which, when its nights gather on,
Becomes the years and our age.