暁の月見んとしも思はねど
見し人ゆゑにながめられつつ
見し人ゆゑにながめられつつ
- Roma-ji
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Akatsuki no tsuki min to shimo omowanedo mishi hito yue ni nagameraretsutsu
- English Translation
-
The moon before dawn—
I do not think in particular
to gaze upon it,
yet because of one I knew,
still I find myself gazing.
- Meaning
- I have no particular wish to look at the moon before dawn, yet because of someone I once knew, I find myself gazing at it again and again.
- Commentary
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Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1527
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the seventh poem of the sequence on the moon lingering at dawn. The poet has no particular wish to look at the moon before dawn, yet because of someone he once knew he finds himself gazing at it. The headnote reads "topic unknown," and records nothing of the circumstances of composition.
The author, "the Poem of Retired Emperor Kazan," is Emperor Kazan. A son of Emperor Reizei, he took the tonsure and abdicated after about two years on the throne, and thereafter traveled through the provinces in religious practice as a cloistered emperor.
The first line, "akatsuki no," refers to the dark hours before daybreak. It is also the hour when lovers part.
In the second line, "tsuki min to shimo," "shimo" is emphatic, meaning "in particular, to look at."
The third line, "omowanedo," uses the concessive "do," meaning "though I do not think so."
The fourth line, "mishi hito yue ni," means "because of someone I once knew." It shows that the dawn moon recalls the morning he parted from that person.
The last line, "nagameraretsutsu," adds the repetitive "tsutsu" to the spontaneous "raru," meaning "I cannot help gazing." Using "nagamu," as in "nagamewabinu" of the preceding poem, it shows the heart that looks at the moon turning toward the memory of a person.
- Author
- Retired Emperor Kazan
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Nagamewabinu shiba no amido no akegata ni yama no ha chikaku nokoru tsukikage
- Next Poem
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Ariake no tsuki bakari koso kayoikere kuru hito nashi no yado no niwa ni mo