Ukihito no tsuki wa nani zo no yukari zo to omoinagara mo uchinagametsutsu - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

憂き人の月はなにぞのゆかりぞと
思ひながらもうちながめつつ

Roma-ji: Ukihito no tsuki wa nani zo no yukari zo to omoinagara mo uchinagametsutsu
English Translation: "What tie of kinship
has the moon with that cold one?"
so I ask myself,
and even as I think it,
still I gaze on, lost in thought.
Meaning: What bond could there be between the moon and that heartless one, I wonder, and yet even as I think so I go on gazing at it.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1266

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the eleventh poem of the sequence of love poems on the moon. What bond is there between that cold one and the moon, the speaker wonders, yet keeps gazing at it all the same. As with the preceding poem, the headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances are not recorded.
The author, "the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left," is Fujiwara no Sanesada. A son of the Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kinyoshi, he rose to Minister of the Left. He was called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left to distinguish him from his grandfather, Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, the Tokudaiji Minister of the Left.

The first line, "ukihito no," means "of the cold one." It is the same word as "ukihito shimo zo" in the fourth line of 1260, tying the unkind lover to the moon.
The second line, "tsuki wa nani zo no," means "what does the moon have," and runs on into the third line.
The third line, "yukari zo to," means "what bond of kinship." It questions, as a matter of logic, why seeing the moon should bring the cold lover to mind.
The fourth line, "omoinagara mo," means "even while thinking so," showing the gap between reasoning and the movements of the heart.
The last line, "uchinagametsutsu," means "I go on gazing, lost in thought." Breaking off on "tsutsu," it leaves a lingering feeling of a heart that cannot be settled by reason and keeps looking at the moon. Within a sequence that sees the beloved in the moon, the poem playfully questions that very likeness.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanesada
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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