Taedae ni sato waku tsuki no hikari kana shigure o okuru yowa no murakumo

English Translation

Broken here and there,
dividing village from village,
the light of the moon—
the scattered clouds of midnight
sending the showers on their way

Meaning

The moonlight falls in broken patches, lighting one village and not the next, as the scattered clouds of midnight pass on, carrying the winter showers along with them.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 599

Headnote: "When I presented fifty poems."
This is the ninth poem of the winter-moon sequence. Through gaps in the scattered clouds of midnight that carry the showers along, the moonlight falls in broken patches, lighting some villages and not others. According to the headnote, it was composed when a set of fifty poems was presented.
The author, "Jakuren Hōshi," is Jakuren. His lay name was Fujiwara no Sadanaga; a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he was adopted as Shunzei's son but later took holy orders. He was chosen as a compiler of the Shin Kokin Wakashū but died before the compilation was completed.
The scene is midnight in winter as the showers pass, and the place is where the villages can be seen spread out below.
The direct occasion is the presentation of a fifty-poem set. The headnote does not record for which gathering the fifty poems were composed.

The first line, "taedae ni," means "in broken patches," "intermittently."
In the second line, "sato waku tsuki no," "waku" means to divide, describing the moonlight lighting one village and not another as if parting them.
The third line, "hikari kana," breaks the poem after the third line with the exclamatory particle "kana," in inverted relation to the lower verse.
The fourth line, "shigure o okuru," means "sending the showers on ahead," describing the scattered clouds moving on as they let fall their showers.
The last line, "yowa no murakumo," closes on a noun, naming at the end what breaks up the moonlight. Showers fall on villages under the clouds while the moon shines on villages the clouds have left, a vast scene as if seen from the sky above. Following 596 and 597 in this book, it again sets the word "murakumo," forming a group of poems on the moon hidden by clouds. Where the preceding poem divided showers and moon between the hills and the capital, this poem divides them village by village.

Author

Jakuren

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other