Ama no hara haruka ni hitori nagamureba tamoto ni tsuki no idenikeru kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

天の原はるかにひとりながむれば
袂に月の出でにけるかな

Roma-ji: Ama no hara haruka ni hitori nagamureba tamoto ni tsuki no idenikeru kana
English Translation: Across the wide sky
as I gaze far off alone,
upon my wet sleeves,
look!—the moon has risen too,
come out there upon my tears.
Meaning: As I gaze alone far across the plain of heaven, the moon has risen—on my own tear-wet sleeves.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1517

Headnote: "Gazing at the moon as it rose, when I could not sleep until late at night."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence thinking of others through the moon. As the poet gazes alone far across the sky, the moon appears reflected on his tear-wet sleeves. According to the headnote, it was composed when he could not sleep until late at night and watched the moon rise.
The author, "Zōki Hōshi," was a monk of the mid-Heian period.

The first line, "ama no hara," refers to the wide expanse of the sky. It is the same first line as Abe no Nakamaro's poem in the Kokin Wakashū, "Ama no hara / furisake mireba / Kasuga naru / Mikasa no yama ni / ideshi tsuki kamo" ("Gazing far across the plain of heaven—is it the same moon that rose over Mount Mikasa at Kasuga?"), an opening for poems looking up at the moon.
The second line, "haruka ni hitori," means "alone, across the far sky." In contrast with "morotomo ni," together, in the preceding poem, here he watches the moon alone.
The third line, "nagamureba," adds "ba" to the perfective form to state a fixed condition: "as I gaze."
The fourth line, "tamoto ni tsuki no," refers to the moon reflected on his tear-wet sleeves. The moon in the sky appears upon the tears on his sleeves.
The last line, "idenikeru kana," adds the exclamatory "kana" to the perfective "ni" and the past "keru." The conceit is that the moon rising in the sky has risen on his sleeves as well, expressing the abundance of tears he sheds alone and sleepless.
Author: Zōki
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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