Kaerusa no mono to ya hito no nagamuran matsu yo nagara no ariake no tsuki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

帰るさのものとや人の眺むらん
待つ夜ながらの有明の月

Roma-ji: Kaerusa no mono to ya hito no nagamuran matsu yo nagara no ariake no tsuki
English Translation: As a thing to see
on the way home, does my love
gaze upon it now—
this dawn moon that has lingered
through my whole night of waiting
Meaning: Does he gaze upon it as something to see on his way home from another—this dawn moon that has stayed through my whole night of waiting?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1206

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a love poem."
This is the tenth poem of the sequence on nights spent waiting for one who does not come. She wonders whether her lover gazes, on his way home from another woman, at this dawn moon she has waited through the night to see. The headnote continues from the preceding poem: it was composed as a love poem.
The author, "Teika Ason," is Fujiwara no Teika. A son of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū and later compiled the Shinchokusenshū.

The first line, "kaerusa no," means "of the way home." "Sa" is a suffix adding the sense of "on the occasion of."
The second line, "mono to ya hito no," means "as a thing, my love," with "ya" forming a kakari-musubi with "ran" in the third line.
The third line, "nagamuran," means "is he gazing?" with a pause after the third line. She guesses that the moon she sees is being seen by him too, in another place.
The fourth line, "matsu yo nagara no," means "remaining through the night of waiting." It shows that dawn has come after a night of waiting, taking up the preceding poem's wish, "if only it had simply dawned," which was not granted: the night grew late and then broke.
The last line, "ariake no tsuki," ends on a noun. The same dawn moon is seen in two ways: to the one who waits, it is the moon of a night spent waiting; to the lover, it is the moon of the way home from another woman. In 1185 and 1193 of this book the dawn moon was sung as a memory of parting, but here it becomes the moon of a night of waiting for one who did not come, closing the run of poems on nights of waiting.
Author: Fujiwara no Teika
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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