草枕ほどぞ経にける都出でて
幾夜か旅の月に寝ぬらん
幾夜か旅の月に寝ぬらん
- Roma-ji
-
Kusamakura hodo zo henikeru miyako idete ikuyo ka tabi no tsuki ni nenuran
- English Translation
-
Pillowed on the grass,
how much time has passed me by
since I left the capital?
How many nights have I slept
beneath the moon of my journey?
- Meaning
- How much time has passed on this journey. Since I left the capital, how many nights have I slept beneath the traveler's moon?
- Commentary
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Book Ten Travel Poems 931
Headnote: "At a place called Sekido-no-in, on the topic 'Viewing the moon while traveling.'"
This is the second of a sequence of poems on the moon seen on a journey. Much time has passed on the road, and the speaker wonders how many nights he has slept under the traveler's moon since leaving the capital, looking back over the nights of his journey. According to the headnote, it was composed at a place called Sekido-no-in on the topic "Viewing the moon while traveling."
The author, Ōe no Yoshitoki, was an official and poet of the mid-Heian period. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the middle ages.
The scene is a night on a journey many days after leaving the capital, at Sekido-no-in.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "Viewing the moon while traveling" at Sekido-no-in.
The first line, "kusamakura," is a pillow word for journey, here standing for the traveler himself. Following 925, the grass pillow is again placed in the first line.
The second line, "hodo zo henikeru," means "how much time has passed." The particle "zo" is answered by the past "keru" in the attributive form, and the poem breaks after this second line.
The third line, "miyako idete," means "since I left the capital." A hypermetric line of six syllables, it looks back to the capital where the journey began.
The fourth line, "ikuyo ka tabi no," means "how many nights, of the journey." The particle "ka" poses a question, answered by "ran" in the attributive form in the last line.
The last line, "tsuki ni nenuran," means "have I slept beneath the moon?" The perfective "nu" and conjectural "ran" look back over the nights that have accumulated. Where the preceding poem sings of the moon of a single night, the fifteenth of the eighth month, this poem sings of the traveler's moon over many nights, treating the same moon on two different scales, one night and many.
- Author
- Ōe no Yoshitoki
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- Beneath the pine roots I cut pampas plumes to spread, and all through the night on the one sleeve that I lay, the snow keeps on falling down.
- Those I used to see send no word, and the sea wind of Tofu is still, yet so coldly shining clear is the moon of this autumn night.
- Where the summer reeds were cut, a brief night's rest is moving indeed; the moon above Tamae in the sky at break of day.
- Turning back again, I will come once more to see; at Matsushima, the rush huts of Ojima— let the waves not ruin them.