Wasuru na yo yadoru tamoto wa kawaru tomo katami ni shiboru yowa no tsukikage

English Translation

Do not forget it—
though the sleeves in which it lodges
are henceforth apart,
this light of the midnight moon
we wring from our sleeves as one.

Meaning

Do not forget it: though the sleeves where the moon lodges will be parted, remember the midnight moonlight we wring from our sleeves together, a keepsake for us both.

Commentary

Book Nine Parting Poems 891

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence of partings composed on no set topic. Though the sleeves in which the moon lodges will be parted, the poet asks that the midnight moonlight wrung from them both not be forgotten. The original text gives no headnote, so it carries over the topic of the preceding poem.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Shunzei, one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū, and later compiled the Shinchokusenshū.
The scene is a parting at midnight under the moon, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "wasuru na yo," means "do not forget," the prohibitive "na" with the exclamatory "yo," and the poem breaks here. Like "kaze na wasure so" at the close of 868, it is the giver asking not to be forgotten.
The second line, "yadoru tamoto wa," means "the sleeves where it lodges." By the conceit of the moon reflected in tear-soaked sleeves, the sleeve becomes the moon's lodging.
The third line, "kawaru tomo," means "even if they change," a concessive supposition. After the parting, the same moon will lodge in sleeves that are apart.
In the fourth line, "katami ni shiboru," "katami" plays on "each other" and on "keepsake." Wringing one another's sleeves with tears and the moonlight becoming a keepsake are gathered into one word.
The last line, "yowa no tsukikage," ends on a noun, naming at the close what must not be forgotten. The conceit of hearts joined at a distance through one moon is shared with 877, and in taking up a parting through a keepsake it answers 857, the poem that opens the book.

Author

Fujiwara no Teika

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other