Waka no ura ni tsuki no ideshio no sasu mama ni yoru naku tsuru no koe zo kanashiki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

和歌の浦に月のいでしほのさすままに
夜鳴く鶴の声ぞ悲しき

Roma-ji: Waka no ura ni tsuki no ideshio no sasu mama ni yoru naku tsuru no koe zo kanashiki
English Translation: At Waka Bay,
as the moon rises and the
flood tide comes flowing in,
the voices of the cranes that cry
by night—how sad they sound!
Meaning: At Waka Bay, as the moon comes out and the rising tide flows in, how sad the voices of the cranes crying in the night!
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1556

Headnote: "On the topic 'The Moon at the Seashore,' at a poetry contest of the Bureau of Poetry."
This is the third poem of the sequence on the moon at the seashore. At Waka Bay, as the moon rises and the tide flows in, the cries of cranes calling in the night sound sad. According to the headnote, it was composed at a poetry contest of the Bureau of Poetry on the topic "The Moon at the Seashore."
The author, "Former Archbishop Jien," was the son of Fujiwara no Tadamichi and younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō.
The Bureau of Poetry was an office Retired Emperor Go-Toba set up at his palace in Kennin 1 (1201), where the compilation of the Shin Kokinshū was carried out. Waka Bay is a famous place in Kii, celebrated through Yamabe no Akahito's poem in the Man'yōshū: "Waka no ura ni / shio michikureba / kata o nami / ashibe o sashite / tazu nakiwataru" ("When the tide flows into Waka Bay and the flats are gone, the cranes cry as they fly toward the reedy shore").

The first line, "Waka no ura ni," presents the famous Waka Bay. It is the same line as the first line of 1506 in this book, and both were composed at the Bureau of Poetry.
The second line, "tsuki no ideshio no," is hypermetric. "Ideshio" plays on "izu," for the moon to rise, and "ideshio," the incoming tide.
The third line, "sasu mama ni," means "as the tide comes in." "Sasu" also suggests the moon's light shining in, along with the rising of the tide.
The fourth line, "yoru naku tsuru no," refers to cranes crying at night. The cranes that flew crying toward the reedy shore as the tide rose in Akahito's poem are set beneath the night moon.
The last line, "koe zo kanashiki," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "zo" with the attributive form "kanashiki." Following the cranes that reproach the sinking moon in the preceding poem, it sings of the sadness of cranes crying as the moon rises.
Author: Jien
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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