Omokage no kasumeru tsuki zo yadorikeru haru ya mukashi no sode no namida ni - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

面影のかすめる月ぞ宿りける
春や昔の袖の涙に

Roma-ji: Omokage no kasumeru tsuki zo yadorikeru haru ya mukashi no sode no namida ni
English Translation: Like your image, dim,
the moon in the misted sky
has come here to dwell
in the tears upon my sleeve—
is spring not the spring of old?
Meaning: The moon, misted over like your remembered face, had come to dwell in the tears upon my sleeve, as I wept to ask whether spring is no longer the spring of old.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1136

Headnote: "At the Minase Love Poem Contest in Fifteen Rounds, on the idea of 'Love in Spring.'"
This is the first of two poems on love linked to the seasons. In the tears on a sleeve, wept in asking whether spring is not the spring of old, the moon dwells, misted like the beloved's remembered face. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Love in Spring" at the Minase Love Poem Contest in Fifteen Rounds.
The author, "Daughter of Shunzei, Master of the Empress Dowager's Household," is Fujiwara no Shunzei's Daughter. The name means the daughter of Shunzei, who held that post, but she was in fact his granddaughter, the daughter of Fujiwara no Moriyori, adopted by Shunzei. She was active in Go-Toba's poetic circle.
The Minase Love Poem Contest in Fifteen Rounds was held by Retired Emperor Go-Toba in Kennin 2 (1202). The source poem is Ariwara no Narihira's Kokinshū poem, "Is this not the moon? Is spring not the spring of old? I alone remain the self I was."

The first line, "omokage no," means "the image of the beloved."
The second line, "kasumeru tsuki zo," means "the misted moon," the particle "zo" forming a bound construction with the attributive "yadorikeru" of the third line. The moon dimmed by spring haze is laid over the faintly remembered face of the beloved, showing the "spring" of the topic "Love in Spring."
The third line, "yadorikeru," means "had come to dwell," and the poem breaks after the third line. Through inversion, the place where the moon dwells is revealed in the last line, "sode no namida ni."
The fourth line, "haru ya mukashi no," takes the second line of the source poem unchanged, borrowing the heart of Narihira's poem, which grieves over a love that has changed: is spring not the spring of old?
The last line, "sode no namida ni," means "in the tears wetting my sleeve," the moon reflected and dwelling in tears. Poem 1139 in this book also sings of the moon dwelling on a sleeve, and the device of the moon dwelling in tears echoes between them.
Author: The Daughter of Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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