Even the feeling
of Awaji, that island
seen and named as "ah"—
it lights it with nothing left
in shadow, this clear night moon

Meaning

This clear night moon leaves no corner dark—even the old feeling of Awaji, the island once glimpsed and named with an "ah."

Commentary

Part One: Akashi

　The fourth month came, and while the novice saw to summer robes and bed curtains with real taste, a quiet moonlit night came round. The sea, visible without a cloud over it, could be mistaken for the pond water of the Nijo residence he knew so well, and a longing beyond words rose with nowhere to go. Looking up, he saw Awaji before him, murmured an old poem, and spoke this one. Soon after he took from its bag the koto he had not touched in a long while.

　"Awa to miru" is to see a thing and say "ah," carrying the sound of the place-name Awaji. It draws on Mitsune's poem about seeing the moon far off at Awaji, so that the sound "awa" comes three times. "Nokoru kuma naku" is with no corner left over. "Sumeru" is held to play clarity against doing. The moon tonight lights up even the feeling inside an old poem, laying an earlier poet's view and his own under one light.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

Even the feeling of Awaji, that island seen and named as "ah"— it lights it with nothing left in shadow, this clear night moon

Even the feeling
of Awaji, that island
seen and named as "ah"—
it lights it with nothing left
in shadow, this clear night moon