Matsushima ya shio kumu ama no aki no sode tsuki wa mono omou narai nomi ka wa

English Translation

At Matsushima
the sleeves of the salt-drawing
fisherfolk in fall
and is brooding at the moon
the only way of being wet

Meaning

The autumn sleeves of the salt-gatherers at Matsushima: is the moon the property of brooders alone?

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems I 401

Headnote: as in the preceding poem, on the autumn moon at the shore.
The third poem on the moon at the shore. The moon lodges in the sleeves of working people too, and the poem denies that it belongs to brooders only. The original gives no fresh headnote.
This is Kamo no Chomei's third appearance in this book, after the three hundred and sixty-sixth and ninety-seventh poems.
The time is a night in autumn; the place is Matsushima in Mutsu Province. The Ojima of the three hundred and ninety-ninth poem lies within it.
The occasion was submission to the contest.

The first line raises the place name with an exclamatory particle.
The second line names those who draw seawater to make salt, the work of the salt fires in Jien's three hundred and ninetieth poem.
The third line names the object: sleeves wet from labour.
The fourth line joins moon to brooding. Since the three hundred and fifty-seventh poem this book has bound the two together.
The word in the closing line means a custom, the usual way of a thing; a limiting particle and a rhetorical particle follow: is the moon the custom of brooders only? It is not. The poem turns reason on a convention of the art itself, as Shunzei's three hundred and fifth poem questioned the tie between reed and autumn wind.

Author

Kamo no Chomei

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other