Aki no yo wa koromo samushiro kasanete mo tsuki no hikari ni shiku mono zo naki

English Translation

On an autumn night,
robes chilled, though I spread and pile
straw mats layered up,
there is nothing to compare
to the moonlight spread below

Meaning

On an autumn night, when robes are cold, though I pile up mat upon mat, nothing I spread can match the moonlight.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 489

Headnote: "Composed as a moon poem."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on the moon and autumn nights. On an autumn night when robes are cold, however many mats one spreads, nothing matches the moonlight. According to the headnote, it was composed as a moon poem.
The author was a son of Minamoto no Michikata who rose to Major Counselor and died at his post as Supernumerary Governor-General of Dazaifu. He excelled in Chinese verse, waka, and music.
The scene is an autumn night, in a bedchamber where moonlight falls.
The direct occasion was composing a poem on the moon.

In the first line, "wa" marks the autumn night as the topic.
In the second line, "samu" is a pivot word joining "samushi," the robes are cold, with "samushiro," a sleeping mat ("sa" a prefix, "mushiro" a mat).
In the third line, "te mo" is concessive: "even if I pile up the mats."
The fourth line gives what is compared with in "shiku" in the last line.
In the last line, "shiku" is a pivot word joining "to spread" (a mat) with "to equal." The emphatic "zo" is resolved by the attributive "naki." Likening the white moonlight on the floor to a spread mat, the poem wittily praises the beauty of moonlight in the cold: however many mats are piled up, none can match it. Following 487, which likened moonlight on the bed to frost, this poem likens it to bedding. The next poem, 490, opens with the same "aki no yo wa."

Author

Minamoto no Tsunenobu

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other