もの思ひてながむるころの月の色に
いかばかりなるあはれ染むらむ
いかばかりなるあはれ染むらむ
- Roma-ji
-
Mono omoite nagamuru koro no tsuki no iro ni ikabakari naru aware somuramu
- English Translation
-
Brooding over love,
in these days I gaze upon
the color of the moon:
how much of sorrow's deep hue
must by now be steeped in it?
- Meaning
- In these days of brooding over love, as I gaze at the moon, how deeply must its color be steeped in sorrow?
- Commentary
-
Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1269
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourteenth poem of the sequence of love poems on the moon. How much sorrow must be steeped in the color of the moon, the speaker wonders, that I gaze at in these days of brooding. 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 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.
The first line, "mono omoite," has six syllables, one more than the norm, and means "brooding over love."
In the second line, "nagamuru koro no," "nagamu" means "to gaze while lost in thought."
The third line, "tsuki no iro ni," also has six syllables. It treats the moonlight as a "color," linked as an associated word to "somu," to be steeped, in the last line.
The fourth line, "ikabakari naru," means "how much."
In the last line, "aware somuramu," "ramu" conjectures about the present: "how much sorrow must be steeped in it?" Following the preceding poem, in which tears wore the moon down, here the gazer's feelings soak into the moon's color, showing moon and heart melting into one.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kuma mo naki orishimo hito o omoiidete kokoro to tsuki o yatsushitsuru kana
- Next Poem
-
Kumore kashi nagamuru kara ni kanashiki wa tsuki ni oboyuru hito no omokage