The light of this moon
is the same I used to see
above the clouds—and
that it should shine so clearly
makes it the more sorrowful
- Meaning
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The light of this moon is no different from the moon I used to see above the clouds; and that it shines so clearly makes it the sadder.
- Commentary
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Volume Eleven: The Sacred Mirror Enters the Capital
This is the second of the poems Sochi-no-suke composed under the moon at Akashi.
"Above the clouds" means the palace. The moon she saw at court and the moon she sees now at Akashi are one and the same.
Sumu carries both "to be clear" and "to dwell." The clearness of the moon and her own former dwelling above the clouds meet in a single word: the same moon shines clear as when she lived there.
Where the first poem addressed the moon, this one only looks at it. There is no answer to an address. Knowing that, she states nothing but the fact that the moon is unchanged. Read in order, the two poems move from calling out to giving up.
That what is unchanged should be the sorrow is the standard form for a poem on a ruined capital. Tadanori's poem in Volume Seven—Shiga fallen to ruin, the mountain cherries blooming as of old—is built the same way. But there the unchanging thing stood on the ground, and here it hangs in the sky, further out of reach. The whole contrast between a ruined earth and an unaltered heaven is concentrated into one moon.
kumo no ue……above the clouds; the palace.
mishi ni kawaranu……no different from what I once saw.
tsukikage……moonlight.
sumu……to be clear; also to dwell.
ni tsukete mo……even in that.
mono zo kanashiki……how sorrowful it is.
Sochi-no-suke……a lady connected with the Dazaifu governor's house.
haito……a capital fallen into ruin.
utamakura……a place with an established poetic tradition.
- Source
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Heike Monogatari
- Other
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