Honomieshi tsuki o koishi to kaerusa no kumoji no nami ni nurete koshi kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ほの見えし月を恋しと帰るさの
雲路の波に濡れて来しかな

Roma-ji: Honomieshi tsuki o koishi to kaerusa no kumoji no nami ni nurete koshi kana
English Translation: Longing for the moon
I glimpsed so faintly, on my
way back home again,
through the waves along the cloud-path
I came, drenched through, all the way.
Meaning: Longing for the moon I glimpsed so faintly, I came home drenched by the waves along the path through the clouds.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1261

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence of love poems on the moon. Longing for the moon I glimpsed so faintly, the speaker says, I came back soaked by the waves of the cloud-path. As with the preceding poem, the headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances are not recorded.
No author is named in the original; continuing from the preceding poem, it is by "Anonymous," and the name has not come down to us.

The first line, "honomieshi," means "glimpsed faintly." It shows that the speaker saw only briefly the beloved likened to the moon.
The second line, "tsuki o koishi to," means "longing for that moon." Taking up "tsuki mireba" and "koishikarikeru" from the preceding poem, it gathers moon and longing into a single line.
In the third line, "kaerusa no," "sa" means "at the time of": "on the way back."
The fourth line, "kumoji no nami ni," treats the path through the clouds as a sea in the sky, the clouds as its waves.
The last line, "nurete koshi kana," means "I came back drenched." Within the conceit of being soaked by the waves of the cloud-path, it suggests sleeves wet with the tears of parting.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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