Yawaraguru hikari ni amaru kage nare ya Isuzu kawara no aki no yo no tsuki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

やはらぐる光にあまる影なれや
五十鈴川原の秋の夜の月

Roma-ji: Yawaraguru hikari ni amaru kage nare ya Isuzu kawara no aki no yo no tsuki
English Translation: Is it a brilliance
that spills over even from
the softened light?—
on the Isuzu riverbank,
the moon of an autumn night.
Meaning: Is it that its radiance overflows even the softened light? The moon of an autumn night above the banks of the Isuzu River.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1880

Headnote: "Composed as a poem on the gods."
This is the tenth poem in the sequence concerning the Great Shrine of Ise. It wonders whether the moon of an autumn night over the Isuzu riverbank shines with a brilliance that overflows even softened light. According to the headnote, it was composed as a poem on the gods. The moon's brightness conveys that even when the Buddha softens his light to become a god, that light is more than abundant.
The author, "Saki no Daisōjō Jien," the former Archbishop, was a son of Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the history Gukanshō.

The first line, "yawaraguru," means "softening the light." Taking up "kage yawaraguru" in the preceding poem, it places at its head the idea of the Buddha softening his light to appear as a god.
The second line, "hikari ni amaru," means "overflowing even the softened light."
The third line, "kage nare ya," means "is it because it is such a light?" The perfective "nare" with the particle "ya" forms a question conjecturing a cause, and the poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "Isuzu kawara no," means "of the riverbank of the Isuzu," the river flowing through the Inner Shrine.
The last line, "aki no yo no tsuki," ends on a noun. From the moon over the grove of Tsukiyomi in the preceding poem to the moon over the Isuzu riverbank, poems on the moon of Ise's sacred precinct continue.
Author: Jien
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Sayaka naru Washi no takane no kumoi yori kage yawaraguru Tsukiyomi no mori
Next Poem: Tachikaeri mata mo mimaku no hoshiki kana Mimosusogawa no seze no shiranami