Yonayona ni izu to mishikado hakanakute irinishi tsuki to iite yaminamu

English Translation

Night after night I
saw it rise, and to no good
a moon that went down
again — let me call it that
and let that be the end of it

Meaning

Night after night I saw it rise, and to no purpose; a moon that set again. Let me call it that, and let that be the end.

Commentary

106 The Reed Leaves

The late Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs had courted this daughter of Taira no Nakaki before the affair recorded earlier, and composed "Ogi no ha no soyogu goto ni zo uramitsuru kaze ni utsurite tsuraki kokoro o". The same prince also composed "Asaku koso hito wa miruarame Sekikawa no tayuru kokoro wa araji to zo omou", and her reply was "Sekikawa no iwama o kuguru mizu asami taenubeku nomi miyuru kokoro o". Since for all his suit she would not see him, he came again on a bright moonlit night and composed "Yonayona ni izu to mishikado hakanakute irinishi tsuki to iite yaminamu". Then one time he dropped a fan, and picking it up she saw written on it, in a hand she did not know, "Wasuraruru mi wa warekara no ayamachi ni nashite dani koso kimi o uramine"; so she wrote beside it "Yuyushiku mo omooyuru kana hitogoto ni utomarenikeru yo ni koso arikere" and sent it to him. On another occasion she composed "Wasuraruru Tokiwa no yama no ne o zo naku akino no mushi no koe ni midarete", and his reply was "Naku naredo obotsukanaku zo omooyuru koe kiku koto no ima wa nakereba". And when the same prince composed "Kumoi nite yo o furu koro wa samidare no ame no shita ni zo ikeru kai naki", her answer was "Fureba koso koe mo kumoi ni kikoekeme itodo harukeki kokochi nomi shite". That is the whole of the section.
The Prince of the Ministry of Military Affairs headed that ministry. Taira no Nakaki served as Assistant Governor of Ōmi; the hundred and fifth section tells of his daughter and the priest Jōzō, and the fifty-seventh of her fallen circumstances. The events of this section fall before those of the hundred and fifth.
The setting is a bright moonlit night, when the prince, still unable to see her, came once more.
What prompted the poem was that the visit came to nothing.
From here the section moves to the matter of the fan he dropped.

The opening says that night after night he saw it rise; the verb is used of the moon rising and of a man setting out from his own house.
The concessive turns on it: and yet.
The moon that set again did so to no purpose; the verb for its setting is also the verb for going indoors, so that a moon that rises and sinks and a man who never gets inside her house are one figure.
The closing proposes to call it that and be done, its final particle giving the resolve some force. It is a declaration that the suit is over, made entirely as a remark about the moon, so that no parting is ever spoken.

Source

Yamato Monogatari

Other