Ikuyo ka wa tsuki o aware to nagamekite nami ni orishiku ise no hamaogi

English Translation

For how many nights
have I gazed upon the moon,
moved so deeply by it,
breaking down by the waves' edge
the beach reeds of Ise for my bed?

Meaning

For how many nights have I gazed at the moon, so moved by it, breaking down the beach reeds of Ise at the water's edge to make my bed?

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 943

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Nights accumulating on the seashore.'"
This is the first of a sequence of poems on the beach reeds of Ise. The speaker wonders how many nights she has gazed at the moon with feeling, sleeping on the beach reeds of Ise broken down at the water's edge, nights accumulating on the shore. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Nights accumulating on the seashore."
The author, Echizen, was a lady-in-waiting and poet of the early Kamakura period. "Echizen" is a court name taken from the name of a province.
The scene is a journey of successive nights sleeping on the shore, on the shore of Ise.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "Nights accumulating on the seashore."

The first line, "ikuyo ka wa," means "for how many nights?" The particle "ka wa" poses a question, thinking of the many nights passed. Like "ikuyo ka tabi no" in 931, it counts the nights of sleeping on the road.
The second line, "tsuki o aware to," means "the moon as moving." It uses the same words as the second line of 937, singing of the beauty of the moon on the road.
The third line, "nagamekite," means "having gazed on and on." It shows the accumulated time of watching the moon night after night.
The fourth line, "nami ni orishiku," means "breaking them down at the waves' edge." It shows the beach reeds broken and spread for a bed, answering "ka wa" in the attributive form.
The last line, "ise no hamaogi," means "the beach reeds of Ise," ending on a noun. The words take up "ise no hamaogi orifusete" in 911, and from here poems ending with the beach reeds of Ise follow. The next poem also ends with the same line, "ise no hamaogi."

Author

Echizen

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other