Nagameba ya Kamiji no yama ni kumo kiete yūbe no sora o iden tsukikage - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

眺めばや神路の山に雲消えて
夕べの空を出でん月影

Roma-ji: Nagameba ya Kamiji no yama ni kumo kiete yūbe no sora o iden tsukikage
English Translation: How I long to gaze—
on Kamiji Mountain
the clouds melt away,
and across the evening sky
the moonlight about to rise.
Meaning: How I long to gaze upon it—the moonlight that will rise across the evening sky once the clouds have melted from Mount Kamiji.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1875

Headnote: "From among poems on the Great Shrine."
This is the fifth poem in the sequence concerning the Great Shrine of Ise. It longs to gaze on the moon that will rise into the evening sky once the clouds over Mount Kamiji have melted away. According to the headnote, it is one of the poems on the Great Shrine. The moon in a cloudless sky is overlaid with the unclouded radiance of the god.
The author, "Dajō Tennō," the Retired Emperor, is Go-Toba. A son of Emperor Takakura, he ruled as retired emperor after abdicating and ordered the compilation of the Shin Kokinshū.
Mount Kamiji rises to the south of the Inner Shrine at Ise and is the source of the Isuzu River.

The first line, "nagameba ya," means "how I long to gaze," ending with the desiderative particle "ba ya," and the poem breaks after this line.
The second line, "Kamiji no yama ni," names Mount Kamiji, the mountain of the Inner Shrine's sacred precinct.
The third line, "kumo kiete," means "the clouds having vanished," showing that nothing obstructs the god's light.
The fourth line, "yūbe no sora o," means "crossing the evening sky."
The last line, "iden tsukikage," means "the moonlight that will rise," ending on a noun. The attributive of the conjectural "n" leads into "tsukikage." The object of "nagame" in the first line is held to the end, an inversion. It resembles "Kamijiyama tsuki sayaka naru" in poem 1878 of this book, both telling of the moon over Mount Kamiji.
Author: Go-Toba In
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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