Natsukari no ashi no karine mo aware nari tamae no tsuki no akegata no sora

English Translation

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.

Meaning

Even a brief night's rest by the stubble of the summer-cut reeds moves the heart: the moon over Tamae in the sky at break of day.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 932

Headnote: "A travel poem from the fifty-poem sequences composed at the residence of Prince Shukaku."
This is the third of a sequence of poems on the moon seen on a journey. Even a brief night's rest by the stubble of summer-cut reeds moves the heart, with the moon lingering over Tamae in the dawn sky, daybreak after a night by the water. According to the headnote, it is a travel poem from the fifty-poem sequences composed at the residence of Prince Shukaku.
The author, "Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Shunzei," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. A poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods, he compiled the Senzai Wakashū and was the father of Fujiwara no Teika.
The scene is dawn after a brief night's rest on a journey, at Tamae, a famous place in Echizen Province.
The direct occasion is the travel topic in the fifty-poem sequences composed at the residence of Prince Shukaku. Prince Shukaku was a son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa and the abbot of Ninnaji.
The source poem is by Minamoto no Shigeyuki in the Goshūi Wakashū: "Trampling the summer-cut reeds of Tamae, the birds gather in flocks so thick there is no sky left for them to rise into." The poem takes from it the words "natsukari," "Tamae," "ashi," and "sora."

The first line, "natsukari no," means "cut in summer." It uses the first line of the source poem as it stands.
In the second line, "ashi no karine mo," "karine" carries both "kari-ne," the cut roots of reeds, and "karine," a brief night's rest on a journey. Following "ashi no maroya" in 926 and 927, sleeping on a journey beside the reeds is sung of again.
The third line, "aware nari," means "it moves the heart." The poem breaks after this third line.
The fourth line, "tamae no tsuki no," means "of the moon lingering over Tamae." Tamae is a famous place in Echizen, sung of as a place known for reeds.
The last line, "akegata no sora," means "the sky at daybreak," ending on a noun. Where the source poem sings of birds gathered so thickly there is no sky left for them to rise into, this poem recasts the same sky of Tamae as a quiet dawn sky with the moon still in it. After the preceding poem looks back over many nights on the road, here the dawn sky of a single such night is sung of.

Author

Fujiwara no Shunzei

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other