月のみやうわのそらなる形見にて
思ひも出でば心通はむ
思ひも出でば心通はむ
- Roma-ji
-
Tsuki nomi ya uwa no sora naru katami nite omoi mo ideba kokoro kayowamu
- English Translation
-
Is it the moon alone,
high and restless in the sky,
that's left as keepsake?
If you too should think of me,
would our hearts then come to meet?
- Meaning
- Is the moon, drifting uncertainly in the sky, our only keepsake? If you too should look at it and remember me, would our hearts then reach each other?
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1267
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the twelfth poem of the sequence of love poems on the moon. The moon floating in the sky is our only uncertain keepsake, the speaker says; if you too remember me, will our hearts meet? As with the preceding poem, the headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances are not recorded.
The author, "Saigyō the Priest," is Saigyō. His lay name was Satō Norikiyo; he served as a guard of the north quarter under Retired Emperor Toba, took holy orders at twenty-three, and traveled the provinces composing poetry.
In the first line, "tsuki nomi ya," "nomi" limits and "ya" questions: "is it the moon alone?"
In the second line, "uwa no sora naru," "uwa no sora" is a pivot word meaning both "high in the sky" and "uncertain, restless." It is the same word as the fourth line of Murasaki Shikibu's poem, 1262.
The third line, "katami nite," means "being a keepsake." Two people far apart gaze at the same moon, making it their shared keepsake.
The fourth line, "omoi mo ideba," is conditional: "if you too should remember me."
The last line, "kokoro kayowamu," means "our hearts would meet." Answering the "ya" of the first line, it closes with both hope and doubt: will our hearts truly meet this way?
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ukihito no tsuki wa nani zo no yukari zo to omoinagara mo uchinagametsutsu
- Next Poem
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Kuma mo naki orishimo hito o omoiidete kokoro to tsuki o yatsushitsuru kana