さやかなる鷲の高嶺の雲居より
影やはらぐる月読の森
影やはらぐる月読の森
- Roma-ji
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Sayaka naru Washi no takane no kumoi yori kage yawaraguru Tsukiyomi no mori
- English Translation
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Shining bright and clear
from Vulture Peak's lofty height,
from the cloudy sky,
its light is softened as it falls—
the grove of Tsukiyomi.
- Meaning
- From the sky above the lofty Vulture Peak, the clear moon softens its light as it shines down upon the grove of Tsukiyomi.
- Commentary
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Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1879
Headnote: "Composed on seeing the moon when he visited the Tsukiyomi Shrine at Ise."
This is the ninth poem in the sequence concerning the Great Shrine of Ise. The moon shining clear from the sky above the lofty Vulture Peak softens its light as it falls on the grove of Tsukiyomi. According to the headnote, the poet composed it on seeing the moon when he visited the Tsukiyomi Shrine at Ise. The idea that the Buddha softens his light to appear as a god is entrusted to the moonlight.
No author is named in the original, and the poem is treated as continuing from the author of the preceding poem, Saigyō.
The Tsukiyomi Shrine is an auxiliary shrine of the Inner Shrine at Ise, enshrining the moon god Tsukiyomi.
Vulture Peak is Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa in India, where the Buddha is said to have preached the Lotus Sutra. Through the phrase "kage yawaraguru," "softening its light," the poem expresses the honji suijaku belief that buddhas and bodhisattvas soften their light and appear in Japan in the form of gods.
The first line, "sayaka naru," means "clear and bright." It shares the word with "tsuki sayaka naru," the second line of the preceding poem.
The second line, "Washi no takane no," means "of the lofty peak of Vulture Peak," a mountain emblematic of the Buddha's realm, answering Mount Kamiji in the preceding poem.
The third line, "kumoi yori," means "from the heights of the sky."
The fourth line, "kage yawaraguru," means "softening its light," drawing on the idea of "softening the light and mingling with the dust," by which the Buddha appears as a god.
The last line, "Tsukiyomi no mori," is the grove of the Tsukiyomi Shrine, ending on a noun. Moonlight falls on the shrine of a god whose very name holds the moon, a correspondence of name and scene. In the next poem Jien places "yawaraguru" at the head of his poem, carrying on the same idea.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kamijiyama tsuki sayaka naru chikai arite ame no shita o ba terasu narikeri
- Next Poem
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Yawaraguru hikari ni amaru kage nare ya Isuzu kawara no aki no yo no tsuki