吹き払ふ嵐ののちの高嶺より
木の葉曇らで月や出づらん
木の葉曇らで月や出づらん
- Roma-ji
-
Fukiharau arashi no nochi no takane yori konoha kumorade tsuki ya izuran
- English Translation
-
From the high peak
after the storm wind
has swept all clean,
will the moon now rise
unclouded by the leaves?
- Meaning
- From the high peak, after the storm wind has swept away the leaves, will the moon now rise with no leaves to cloud its light?
- Commentary
-
Book Six Winter Poems 593
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the winter-moon sequence. The speaker imagines the moon rising from the high peak after the storm has swept away the leaves, with nothing now to obscure it. The headnote continues from the preceding poem with no topic given, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Gishūmon'in no Tango," is Gishūmon'in no Tango. A daughter of the Governor of Tango Minamoto no Yoriyuki and a niece of Minamoto no Yorimasa, she served in the household of Kujō Kanezane and later served his daughter Gishūmon'in, Ninshi, who became empress to Emperor Go-Toba.
The scene is a winter night after the storm has passed, and the place is where the high peak of the moonrise can be seen.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The first line, "fukiharau," means "sweeping away the leaves" and modifies "arashi," storm, in the second line.
The second line, "arashi no nochi no," means "after the storm has passed."
The third line, "takane yori," means "from the high peak," indicating where the moon will rise. As in 570 of this book, where the clouds on the peak awaited by the moon-watcher cleared, the high peak is set as the place of waiting for the moonrise.
The fourth line, "konoha kumorade," means "unclouded by the leaves," with "de" as a negative conjunctive particle.
The last line, "tsuki ya izuran," closes with the attributive form of the conjectural auxiliary "ran," answering the interrogative particle "ya," and wonders, "will the moon rise?" Where the preceding poem sang of moonlight filtering between the trees, this poem imagines a moon unhindered by any leaves, the storm having swept them all away, so that the way the moon is seen advances step by step with the thinning of the leaves.
- Author
- Gishumon-in no Tango
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Faint and dimly bright, in the light of the moon of dawn, the lingering moon, blowing down the crimson leaves, the wind that sweeps down from the hills
- The crimson leaves— why did I grieve to see them go? Between the trees the moonlight comes stealing through, and tonight at last I see it
- On my frozen sleeve where the frost has hardened, still the light remains— the moon of dawn I came to know since the season of the dew
- Gazing on and on, how many times has it clouded upon my sleeve? Deep into the night of showers, the moon that lingers into dawn