Yamakage ni sumanu kokoro wa ika nare ya oshimarete iru tsuki mo aru yo ni - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山陰にすまぬ心はいかなれや
惜しまれて入る月もあるよに

Roma-ji: Yamakage ni sumanu kokoro wa ika nare ya oshimarete iru tsuki mo aru yo ni
English Translation: Not to dwell apart
in mountain shade, what sort of
heart would that be, pray?
Even the moon, though they grieve,
sinks into the hills this night.
Meaning: What kind of heart is it that will not dwell in the shade of the mountains—when even the moon, though people grieve to see it go, sinks into the hills in this world of ours?
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1633

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on the heart of living in the mountains. Even the moon, though people grieve to lose it, enters the hills; what kind of heart, the poet asks, will not dwell in the mountain shade? The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, continuing from the preceding poem, is Saigyō. Named Satō Norikiyo in lay life, he was a guard in the service of Retired Emperor Toba and took holy orders at the age of twenty-three.

The first line, "yamakage ni," means "in the shade of the mountains," indicating a mountain dwelling apart from the world.
The second line, "sumanu kokoro wa," pivots on "suma," both "dwelling" in the mountain shade and the moon "shining clear."
The third line, "ika nare ya," means "why is it so?" "Ya" poses a question, and the poem breaks here after the third line.
The fourth line, "oshimarete iru," means "entering the hills though grieved for." The moon sinking behind the ridge while people regret its going is overlaid with a person entering the mountains while the world regrets it.
The last line, "tsuki mo aru yo ni," pivots on "yo," both "world" and "night," when the moon comes out. Through inversion, the reason for questioning the heart that will not enter the mountains is shown at the close. Following the preceding poem's teaching that one cannot know without living there, this one questions the heart that will not live in the mountains.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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