Kaze fukeba tama chiru hagi no shitatsuyu ni hakanaku yadoru nobe no tsuki kana

English Translation

When the wind comes up
the beads are shed, and briefly
in the dew beneath
the bush clover it lodges
the moon out on the wide moor

Meaning

When the wind blows the beads are scattered; and in the dew beneath the clover the moon of the moor lodges for a moment.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems I 386

Headnote: as in the preceding poem, topic unknown.
The eleventh poem on the moon, on the moon caught in the dew beneath the clover. The original gives no fresh headnote.
The poet, known by his temple and titles, is Fujiwara no Tadamichi, who served as Regent and Chancellor and retired to Hossho-ji. This is his second appearance in this book, after the three hundred and second poem. The contest named in the headnote to the three hundred and seventy-third was held at his residence.
The time is a night in autumn; the place is a moor where clover grows.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.

The first line gives a settled condition.
The second line means clover from which beads of dew are shed. Dew as beads is the figure of the three hundred and thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth poems.
The word in the third line means dew lying beneath plants, used in the two hundred and seventy-first and seventy-ninth poems of Book Three.
The adjective in the fourth line means frail, quick to go, and the verb means for light to be reflected. Since a breath of wind scatters the dew, the moon it holds lasts only a moment.
The poem closes on a noun. Ariie's three hundred and seventy-seventh poem said that lightning would not stay even on dew; this one has the moon lodge there. The same small surface is handled twice, from the side of the light.

Author

Fujiwara no Tadamichi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other