入りやらで夜を惜しむ月のやすらひに
ほのぼの明くる山の端ぞ憂き
ほのぼの明くる山の端ぞ憂き
- Roma-ji
-
Iriyarade yo o oshimu tsuki no yasurai ni honobono akuru yama no ha zo uki
- English Translation
-
While the moon delays,
not quite setting, as if loath
to lose the night—
faintly, faintly growing light,
how cruel the mountain's rim!
- Meaning
- While the moon lingers, not quite setting, as though loath to let the night go, the mountain rim grows faintly light—how cruel it is.
- Commentary
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Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1549
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the spirit of 'The Moon at Dawn,' at the Kasuga Shrine Poetry Contest."
This is the third and last poem of the sequence on the moon at dawn. While the moon lingers, not quite setting as though loath to let the night go, the mountain rim grows faintly light, and the poet finds it cruel. The headnote continues from the preceding poem: it was composed at the Kasuga Shrine Poetry Contest on the topic "The Moon at Dawn."
The author, "Fujiwara no Yasusue Ason," was a poet of the early Kamakura period.
The Kasuga Shrine Poetry Contest was a poetry contest that Retired Emperor Go-Toba dedicated to Kasuga Shrine in Genkyū 1 (1204).
The first line, "iriyarade," means "not setting completely." It takes up the moon about to sink behind the distant hills in the preceding poem.
The second line, "yo o oshimu tsuki no," is hypermetric and refers to a moon that seems to regret the passing of the night. It personifies the moon.
The third line, "yasurai ni," means "while it hesitates."
The fourth line, "honobono akuru," means "growing faintly light." It shows the light of dawn coming from the mountain rim.
The last line, "yama no ha zo uki," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "zo" with the attributive form "uki." Finding cruel the dawning of the mountain rim where the moon sets, it closes the sequence that regrets the dawn moon.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Yasusue
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kumo o nomi tsuraki mono tote akasu yo no tsuki yo kozue ni ochikata no yama
- Next Poem
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Ayashiku zo kaesa wa tsuki no kumorinishi mukashigatari ni yo ya fukeniken