Akinoiroo okurimukaete kumonoueni narenishitsukimo monowasuresuna

English Translation

Seeing autumn's hues
away and welcoming them,
the moon grown familiar
above the clouds—do not, I beg,
forget the way things were

Meaning

Moon that saw the colours of autumn out and welcomed them in, moon grown familiar above the clouds: do not forget those days.

Commentary

Book One: Odoro no Shita

Go-Toba, the eighty-second sovereign, was the fourth son of Takakura. After the Taira fled west with the child emperor Antoku, the Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa summoned his grandsons to look at them; the third prince wept and would not go near him, but the fourth prince climbed at once onto his knee and seemed fond of him, so the Cloistered Emperor exclaimed that here was a true grandson, and in the eighth month of Juei 2 set him on the throne at the age of four. The sacred sword had gone down into the sea with the former emperor, so that for the first time an accession took place without the three regalia. After the Cloistered Emperor's death Go-Toba ruled in his own right; the realm was at peace and the way of poetry flourished. In Kenkyu 9, at nineteen, he abdicated to Tsuchimikado and began his cloistered rule, building a villa at Minase where he spent himself on the pleasures of the seasons. He held the poetry contest in fifteen hundred rounds, established the Bureau of Poetry, had the Shinkokinshu compiled, and held its celebratory banquet in Genkyu 2. In Jogen 4 he set Tsuchimikado aside and raised Juntoku to the throne, and Juntoku too gave himself to poetry. At Minase the retired emperor played go and small archery, explained the old precedent of the stakes, and had a guardsman prepare the dish described by Murasaki Shikibu—in everything he showed the range of his gifts. At the selected poetry contest of Kempo 2, Fujiwara no Hideyoshi of the Northern Guard was called on for nine poems; the Yoshimizu bishop Jien offered the retired emperor a long poem, and Teika wrote a long poem in reply on the spot. The new retired emperor Tsuchimikado composed a hundred poems privately, showed them to Ietaka and Teika, and exchanged poems with Teika.
Go-Toba's personal name was Takahira; he was the fourth son of Takakura, and his mother was Shichijoin, daughter of Nobutaka, Master of the Office of Palace Repairs. Tsuchimikado's personal name was Tamehito, and his mother was Shomeimon'in, daughter of the priest Noen and adopted daughter of the Inner Minister Michichika. Juntoku's personal name was Morinari, and his mother was Shumeimon'in. The regent Kujo Yoshitsune was called a saint of poetry, and the compilers of the Shinkokinshu were Michitomo, Ariie, Teika, Ietaka and Masatsune. The Middle Counselor Kanemitsu, Fujiwara no Kanemitsu, and the Middle Counselor Sukezane, Fujiwara no Sukezane, were each called on for screen poems at an accession thanksgiving. Kunaikyo was descended from Emperor Murakami through the Minister of the Left Toshifusa, and was the daughter of a man who died holding only the fourth rank. Fujiwara no Hideyoshi served in the retired emperor's Northern Guard, and the Yoshimizu bishop Jien was a poet-monk who long held the office of Tendai abbot.
The new retired emperor Tsuchimikado, as he passed his days quietly, wrote nothing but poems, though it was not in his nature to bring anything forward, and he did not care to gather people for formal occasions.
In the Kempo years he composed a hundred poems privately and sent them to Ietaka of the third rank and to Teika, Minister of Ceremonial, describing them as the work of a child of no consequence. Among poems fine and varied, this is the one on recollection of the past.
Teika was startled and abashed by it, wrote on the back that he had been shamefully taken in, and presented the reply "Akazarishi tsukimosakosowa omourame furukinamidamo wasurarenuyoo". The retired emperor must have found it moving, the narrator says, and closes by remarking how pitiable it is that even now he lives somewhat apart from the world.

The first line names the colours of autumn, and the second, in seeing them out and greeting them in, gathers up the years spent doing so. Above the clouds in the third line is the usual phrase for the palace, and in the fourth the moon has grown familiar there; the added particle implies not only people but the moon as well. The poem ends with a prohibitive imperative addressed to the moon: do not forget. In form it calls out to the moon as an emblem of the reign, but in fact it entrusts to the moon the speaker's own wish not to be forgotten, so that the longing of a man set aside and living at a distance becomes the whole poem. Just as he is described as refined and easy by nature, inwardly troubled but letting nothing show, he says nothing of resentment directly and turns it instead into an address to the moon.

Author

Tsuchimikado In

Source

Masukagami

Other