Ayashiku zo kaesa wa tsuki no kumorinishi mukashigatari ni yo ya fukeniken - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あやしくぞ帰さは月の曇りにし
昔語りに夜や更けにけん

Roma-ji: Ayashiku zo kaesa wa tsuki no kumorinishi mukashigatari ni yo ya fukeniken
English Translation: Strangely enough, then,
on my way back the moon
had clouded over—
in our tales of long ago
had the night grown late, I wonder?
Meaning: Strangely enough, on my way home the moon had clouded over—had the night grown late as we talked of long ago?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1550

Headnote: "Sent the next morning after I returned home, having met Teika Ason on a bright moonlit night; when he asked since when I had been so devoted to the way of poetry, I told him that when I was young I had long accompanied Saigyō and learned from him, and spoke of what Saigyō had said in those days."
This is the first poem of the sequence on the moon that recalls the past. Strangely, the moon clouded over on the way home, and the poet asks whether the night had grown late as they talked of the past. According to the headnote, he met Fujiwara no Teika on a bright moonlit night; asked since when he had devoted himself to poetry, he told how in his youth he had long accompanied Saigyō and learned from him, and the next morning after returning home he sent this poem to Teika.
The author, "Hokkyō Gyōhen," was a monk of the early Kamakura period. He held the rank of hokkyō.

The first line, "ayashiku zo," means "strangely," and the particle "zo" is closed by "shi" in the third line.
In the second line, "kaesa wa tsuki no," "kaesa" means the way home. It presents the moon that had been bright on the way there.
The third line, "kumorinishi," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "zo" with "shi," the attributive form of the past "ki." It implies that the moon clouded because his eyes were clouded by tears in remembering Saigyō, and the poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "mukashigatari ni," refers to talking of memories of Saigyō.
The last line, "yo ya fukeniken," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "ya" with the attributive form "ken." Hiding his tears in a feigned question—did the moon cloud because the night grew late with talk of the past?—it begins the poems that follow on the moon that recalls the past.
Author: Gyōhen
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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