Sudakiken mukashi no hito wa kage taete yado moru mono wa ariake no tsuki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

すだきけん昔の人は影絶えて
やどもるものは有明の月

Roma-ji: Sudakiken mukashi no hito wa kage taete yado moru mono wa ariake no tsuki
English Translation: The people of old
who must have gathered here in throngs
have left not a trace—
what guards this place, seeping in,
is the moon that lingers at dawn.
Meaning: The people who must once have gathered here in throngs have vanished without a trace—all that keeps this place, seeping through its eaves, is the moon at dawn.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1552

Headnote: "On seeing the moon at Henjōji."
This is the third poem of the sequence on the moon that recalls the past. The people who must once have gathered here have vanished, and all that guards the temple and seeps through its ruined eaves is the dawn moon. According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing the moon at Henjōji.
The author, "Taira no Tadamori Ason," was the son of Taira no Masamori. He rose to Minister of Justice and was the father of Taira no Kiyomori.
Henjōji was a temple west of the capital beside the Hirosawa Pond in Saga, and the Hirosawa Pond was known as a place for moon viewing.

In the first line, "sudakiken," "sudaku" means to gather in crowds. With the past conjectural "ken," it means "who must once have gathered."
The second line, "mukashi no hito wa," refers to those who once gathered at this temple. It takes up "mukashi sumiki" of the preceding poem.
The third line, "kage taete," means "their forms no longer seen." "Kage" means human form, echoing also the "kage," light, of the moon in the last line.
In the fourth line, "yado moru mono wa," "yado moru," as in the second line of the preceding poem, plays on "moru," to guard the house, and "moru," for moonlight to leak in.
The last line, "ariake no tsuki," ends on a noun. Using the same wordplay as the preceding poem, it says that only the moon guards a temple deserted by people, contrasting the bustle of the past with the loneliness of the present.
Author: Taira no Tadamori
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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