Ima wa tote wakareshi hodo no tsuki o dani namida ni kurete nagame ya wa seshi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今はとて別れしほどの月をだに
涙にくれてながめやはせし

Roma-ji: Ima wa tote wakareshi hodo no tsuki o dani namida ni kurete nagame ya wa seshi
English Translation: "This is the end," we said,
and in the hour of parting
even the moon's face
clouded over by my tears,
could I gaze upon at all?
Meaning: "This is the end," we said as we parted; could I even look at the moon that night, blinded as I was by tears? No, I could not.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1264

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the ninth poem of the sequence of love poems on the moon. Blinded by tears, the speaker says, I could not even gaze at the moon on the night we parted, saying it was the end. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Fujiwara no Tsunehira," was a poet of the mid-Heian period.

The first line, "ima wa tote," means "saying this is the end." It is the same phrase as the third line of Princess Keishi's poem, 1238.
The second line, "wakareshi hodo no," means "of the hour of parting." It matches the fourth line of Princess Keishi's poem, so that two lines together coincide exactly.
In the third line, "tsuki o dani," "dani" means "even." It shows that the moon at parting is something one would wish at least to look upon as a keepsake.
In the fourth line, "namida ni kurete," "kure" means that one's sight is darkened by tears.
In the last line, "nagame ya wa seshi," "ya wa" is rhetorical: "could I gaze upon it? No." Where Princess Keishi said the turmoil of parting left her unable to tell one day from the next, this poem treats the same scene of parting from the side of the moon: not even the moon could be seen.
Author: Fujiwara no Tsunehira
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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