東路の夜半の眺めを語らなん
都の山にかかる月影
都の山にかかる月影
- Roma-ji
-
Azumaji no yowa no nagame o kataranan miyako no yama ni kakaru tsukikage
- English Translation
-
On the eastern road,
how I gazed deep in the night—
tell them this, I pray,
moonlight hanging on the hills
around the capital.
- Meaning
- Moonlight resting on the hills around the capital, tell them, I pray, how I gazed out lost in thought deep in the night on the eastern road.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Travel Poems 942
Headnote: "Composed as a travel poem."
This is the thirteenth of a sequence of poems on the moon seen on a journey. The speaker asks the moonlight on the hills of the capital to tell those there how he gazed out lost in thought late at night on the eastern road, entrusting his feelings on the road to the moon. According to the headnote, it was composed as a travel poem.
The author, Jien, was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi. He served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the history Gukanshō.
The scene is late at night on a journey to the East, on the road to the eastern provinces.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic of "travel."
The first line, "azumaji no," means "of the road to the East." It is the same first line as 907, showing a journey to the eastern provinces.
The second line, "yowa no nagame o," means "how I gazed out, lost in thought, deep in the night." "Nagame" means looking out while sunk in thought.
The third line, "kataranan," means "tell them, I pray." "Nan" is a final particle expressing a wish directed at another, and the poem breaks after this third line.
The fourth line, "miyako no yama ni," means "on the hills around the capital." Like "miyako no yama no ariake no tsuki" in 936, it sings of the moon resting on the hills of the capital.
The last line, "kakaru tsukikage," means "the moonlight resting there," ending on a noun. By inversion, the one addressed comes last. Where the preceding poem imagines the traveler's image seen in the moon over home, this poem asks the moon on the capital's hills to tell of the traveler's musings, continuing the device of sending feelings from the road to the capital by way of the moon.
- Author
- Jien
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Wasureji to chigirite ideshi omokage wa miyuran mono o furusato no tsuki
- Next Poem
-
Ikuyo ka wa tsuki o aware to nagamekite nami ni orishiku ise no hamaogi