Inaba fuku kaze ni makasete sumu io wa tsuki zo makoto ni moriakashikeru

English Translation

I leave it to the
wind that goes through the rice leaves
this hut where I live
and it is the moon, in truth
that keeps the watch until dawn

Meaning

At this hut where I live, leaving all to the wind in the rice leaves, it is the moon that truly leaks in, and keeps the watch till daybreak.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems I 428

Headnote: as in the preceding poem, on the moon at a house in the fields.
The third poem on the hut in the fields: not the person in the hut but the moon keeps watch over the field through the night. The original gives no fresh headnote.
The poet, known as the daughter of Shunzei, was in fact his granddaughter and adopted daughter. This is her third appearance in this book, after the three hundred and ninety-first poem.
The time is a night in autumn; the place is a hut in the fields.
The occasion was submission to the contest.

The first line means the wind that blows through the rice leaves, the phrase used in Yoshitsune's sixty-first poem in Book One.
The second line means leaving things to the wind, the posture of Yorimasa's three hundred and twenty-ninth poem and Tsurayuki's hundred and eleventh in Book Three.
The verb in the third line does double duty: to live in a place, and for a moon to shine clear, the pivot used in the three hundred and seventy-fourth, eightieth and four hundredth poems of this book.
The word in the fourth line means truly, and it limits: not the person but the moon.
The verb at the close again does double duty, meaning both that light leaks in and that a field is guarded, the pivot of the previous poem, so that the two share it. The verb after it means to sit out the night, which is the watcher's duty. The man in the hut leaves everything to the wind, and the moon does the guarding.

Author

The Daughter of Fujiwara no Shunzei

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other