Tatsutayama yowa ni arashi no matsu fukeba kumo ni wa utoki mine no tsukikage

English Translation

On Tatsuta hill
when at midnight the storm blows
through the pines, the moon
above the ridge is a thing
the clouds can come nowhere near

Meaning

When the midnight storm blows through the pines on Tatsuta, the moon above the ridge has nothing to do with cloud.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems I 412

Headnote: topic unknown.
The second poem pairing cloud with the moon. The storm keeps the cloud away and the moon over the ridge is clear. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
The poet, given by his court title, is Minamoto no Michiteru, a son of the Inner Minister Minamoto no Michichika, who later rose to Chancellor. This is his third appearance in this book, after the three hundred and fifty-first and seventy-eighth poems.
The time is midnight in autumn; the place is Tatsuta in Yamato Province, written of in Tadamichi's three hundred and second poem.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.

The place name in the first line sounds the verb for rising, and with the storm named in the second line that sound tells.
The second line gives the wind, a midnight storm as in the previous poem, so that the two stand together.
The third line gives a settled condition and the sound of wind in the pines.
The adjective in the fourth line means not close, having little to do with. That the storm keeps the cloud off is stated in the language of human acquaintance; it is the word of Saigyo's fifty-first poem in Book One, on people who are distant.
The poem closes on a noun. The previous poem had the storm sweep the clouds away; this one has it keep them off. One result is given by two different means.

Author

Minamoto no Michiteru

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other