思ひ出でば同じ空とは月を見よ
ほどは雲居にめぐりあふまで
ほどは雲居にめぐりあふまで
- Roma-ji
-
Omoiideba onaji sora to wa tsuki o miyo hodo wa kumoi ni meguriau made
- English Translation
-
When you think of me,
look upon the moon and know
it is the selfsame sky—
though far as the clouds apart,
till we come round to meet again.
- Meaning
- When you remember me, gaze at the moon and know we share the same sky. Though the distance between us is as far as the clouds, keep looking until, like the circling moon, we come around to meet again.
- Commentary
-
Book Nine Parting Poems 877
Headnote: "When he was Crown Prince, bestowing a farewell on Sanemasa, later Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu, who was then his tutor and was going down as governor of Kai."
This is the first poem of a sequence on partings from provincial governors. Sending off his tutor bound for Kai, the prince bids him look at the moon in the same sky whenever he remembers, until they meet again. According to the headnote, it was composed while Go-Sanjō was still Crown Prince, when he gave a farewell to Sanemasa, his tutor, who was going down as governor of Kai.
The author was a son of Emperor Go-Suzaku, came to the throne as an emperor without Fujiwara maternal relatives, and issued the Enkyū decree regulating estates.
The scene is Sanemasa's departure for his post in Kai, and the place is the capital.
The direct occasion was the farewell given to Sanemasa, tutor to the Crown Prince, as he went down as governor of Kai.
"Sanemasa, Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu" in the headnote is Fujiwara no Sanemasa, called by that title because he later held the post. "Tutor" refers to the scholar who lectured to the Crown Prince.
The first line, "omoiideba," means "if you remember," the irrealis form followed by the particle "ba" setting a supposition. It imagines a time after parting when the tutor recalls the capital and the prince.
The second line, "onaji sora to wa," means "that it is the same sky." It expresses the thought that however far apart, the sky is one.
The third line, "tsuki o miyo," is an imperative, and the poem breaks here. It presents the moon as the link between the two.
The fourth line, "hodo wa kumoi ni," means "though the distance be as far as the clouds." "Kumoi" is the far place where clouds lie, and it is also related to "moon."
The last line, "meguriau made," lays together the moon circling the sky and people meeting again. Where the preceding poem is a traveler kept from the capital by the river mists of Yodo, this poem calls from the one who sees off, bidding the traveler see the moon in the same sky though they are apart, so separation and sharing form a pair.
- Author
- Emperor Go-Sanjō
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- That I should remain— this would be to my heart's desire, and yet what am I now to do, with autumn here beckoning me on my way?
- From the capital together with the autumn I began my way— and the river mists of Yodo, how many nights have they come between?
- When I think how long till the day you will return, like the Takekuma pine, I wait—and it is I who have grown so very old.
- Though I think of you, in the frailty of this world where nothing is sure, when to wait for my return I cannot bid you trust.