Tsuki o nado matare nomi su to omoiken geni yama no ha wa ideukarikeri - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

月をなど待たれのみすと思ひけん
げに山の端は出でうかりけり

Roma-ji: Tsuki o nado matare nomi su to omoiken geni yama no ha wa ideukarikeri
English Translation: Why did I suppose
the moon was only ever
waited for by others?
Truly, the rim of the hills
is hard to leave behind.
Meaning: Why did I think the moon was only ever waited for? Truly, it is hard to come forth from behind the mountain rim.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1504

Headnote: "Composed when I was about to return home after spending some days at Miidera and the people there regretted my leaving."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence on the moon. The poet had thought the moon was only ever waited for, but now realizes it is hard to leave the mountain rim, overlaying on the moon his own reluctance to depart. According to the headnote, he had spent several days at Miidera, and when he was about to return home, the people there regretted his leaving.
The author, "Norikane, Minister of Justice," was the son of Fujiwara no Yoshikane. He rose to Minister of Justice and wrote the poetics treatise Waka Dōmōshō.
Miidera is the common name of Onjōji in Ōmi, head temple of the Jimon branch of the Tendai school.

In the first line, "tsuki o nado," "nado" is an interrogative meaning "why." It questions his assumption about the moon.
The second line, "matare nomi su to," uses the passive "ru," meaning "that it is only waited for by others."
The third line, "omoiken," closes with the attributive form "ken" in response to the interrogative "nado," without a binding particle. He asks himself why he had thought so, and the poem breaks after the third line.
In the fourth line, "geni yama no ha wa," "geni" means "truly, indeed." Like the moon "reluctant to come forth over the mountain rim" in 1501 in this book, it sings of a moon slow to leave the mountain rim.
The last line, "ideukarikeri," means "it was hard to come forth." It overlays the moon's slowness to rise with his own heart, reluctant to leave Miidera.
Author: Fujiwara no Norikane
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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