秋の夜は宿かる月も露ながら
袖に吹きこす荻のうは風
袖に吹きこす荻のうは風
- Roma-ji
-
Aki no yo wa yadokaru tsuki mo tsuyu nagara sode ni fukikosu ogi no uwakaze
- English Translation
-
On an autumn night
the moon that lodges is still
a thing of the dew
and over my sleeve it blows
the high wind through the reed-tops
- Meaning
- On an autumn night the moon that takes lodging on my sleeve is only dew; and over it blows the high wind through the reeds.
- Commentary
-
Book Four Autumn Poems I 424
Headnote: topic unknown.
Moon, dew and reed are gathered into one poem. The headnote gives no topic and nothing is known of the circumstances.
The poet, given by his court title, is Minamoto no Michitomo, a son of the Inner Minister Minamoto no Michichika and one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashu. This is his third appearance in this book, after the three hundred and seventy-fourth poem.
The time is a night in autumn; the place is where reeds grow.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.
The first line fixes the scene.
The phrase in the second line means to take lodging: the moon lodges in the dew on a sleeve, the idea of Tadamichi's three hundred and eighty-sixth poem, where it lodged in the dew beneath the clover. The particle carries the sense of even the moon.
The particle in the third line means remaining as it is: the moon that has taken lodging is still only dew, and quick to go.
The fourth line means blowing across the sleeve. Let the wind blow and the dew scatters, and the moon with it.
The poem closes on a noun. The wind named is the one that blows over the tops, and the plant is the reed whose upper leaves are written of in the three hundred and sixth, eleventh and fifty-second poems of this book. Moon, dew and reed, the chief materials of this book, are gathered into one piece, which suits a place near its close.
- Author
- Minamoto no Michitomo
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Where it ends at last the sky is one with the plain of Musashi, and out of a field of grasses the light of the moon comes up
- Are they waiting still for the moon, I wonder, those villagers who live under the far edge of cloud that is clearing after rain
- The moon of autumn takes lodging in the bamboo and its light rides high and on the field of dwarf grass the dew has deepened with night
- The wind goes across and the moon that leaks in through the hut in the field can it be ice that has formed on the waves of ripened grain