曇りなき鏡の山の月を見て
明らけき代を空に知るかな
明らけき代を空に知るかな
- Roma-ji
-
Kumori naki Kagami no yama no tsuki o mite akirakeki yo o sora ni shiru kana
- English Translation
-
Without any cloud,
on Kagami, the mirror mountain,
gazing at the moon—
that this reign is bright and clear
I know from the sky above.
- Meaning
- Gazing at the cloudless moon over Kagami, the Mirror Mountain, I know from the sky that this is a reign of brightness and clear order.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 751
Headnote: "Composed on Mount Kagami in Ōmi Province for a screen of the Yuki side at the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Kyūju 2."
This is the fifth poem of the sequence of Great Thanksgiving Festival poems. Gazing at the cloudless moon over Mount Kagami, the speaker knows from the sky that the reign is bright and well ordered. According to the headnote, it was composed for a screen on Mount Kagami in Ōmi Province, chosen as the Yuki province for the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Kyūju 2.
The author served as Professor of Literature and rose to Minister of the Imperial Household.
The scene is a moonlit night at the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Kyūju 2, and the place is Mount Kagami in Ōmi Province, painted on the screen.
The direct occasion is the composition, as a screen poem, on a place name of Ōmi Province, designated as the Yuki province for the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Emperor Go-Shirakawa in Kyūju 2 (1155).
Mount Kagami is a poetic place in Ōmi Province, a mountain on the border between present-day Ryūō Town and Yasu City in Shiga.
The first line, "kumori naki," means "cloudless." It forms an associated word with "kagami," mirror, in the next line, and like "kumori naku" in 722 and "the cloudless sky" in 724 in this book, it sees the reign in a clear, bright scene.
The second line, "Kagami no yama no," means "of Mount Kagami," a place name of the Yuki province. The "mirror" in the place name works as something reflecting the cloudless moon.
The third line, "tsuki o mite," means "gazing at the moon" over Mount Kagami.
The fourth line, "akirakeki yo o," means "a reign bright and well ordered." "Akirakeshi" describes both the brightness of a mirror or the moon and the good order of the realm.
The last line, "sora ni shiru kana," means "I know it from the sky," closing with the exclamatory "kana." Linking words of light, cloudless, mirror, moon, bright, and sky, the poem ties the place name Mount Kagami to the brightness of the reign.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Naganori
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- Our sovereign lord forever firm as the rock at Moruyama guarding— mountain folk, so it would seem: they wear the mountain vines.
- The molted hawk's name, on Taka-no-o Mountain, the fair camellia— though it pass through the frosts, its color will never change.
- Past Mount Ōe, crossing over, Ikuno's plain stretches far ahead— an age where the Way is kept, how glad I am to have met!
- In Ōmi's land, the rice of Sakata's fields hung and heaped up high— at the start of a reign of the Way we pound it, pound it now.