Waga kokoro nao hareyaranu akigiri ni honoka ni miyuru ariake no tsuki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わが心なを晴れやらぬ秋霧に
ほのかに見ゆる在曙の月

Roma-ji: Waga kokoro nao hareyaranu akigiri ni honoka ni miyuru ariake no tsuki
English Translation: This heart of mine, still
not yet fully cleared of mist,
in the autumn fog
faintly glimpsed is what I am—
the moon lingering at dawn.
Meaning: My heart is like the dawn moon glimpsed faintly through autumn mist that has still not fully cleared.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1934

Headnote: "On the meaning of 'Contemplating the mind, it is like the moon's disk within a light mist.'"
This is the first poem in the sequence on phrases from the scriptures and the heart of the teachings. It likens the poet's own heart to the moon at dawn, faintly visible through autumn mist that has not yet cleared. According to the headnote, it renders the meaning of a scriptural phrase: "When one contemplates the mind, it is like the moon's disk within a light mist."
The teaching of contemplating the mind—that the heart, perfect in nature like the full moon, can be seen only faintly through the mist of defilements—is carried over into a scene of an autumn dawn.
The author, "Gon no Sōjō Kōin," was a monk of the Jimon branch of the Tendai school from the end of the Heian into the early Kamakura period, and served as chief abbot of Onjō-ji (Mii-dera).
Contemplation of the mind is the practice of observing the true nature of one's own mind; in esoteric Buddhism that mind is visualized as a moon disk, a full moon.

The first line, "waga kokoro," sets down first the poet's own mind, the object of contemplation.
The second line, "nao hareyaranu," means "still not fully cleared," showing the lingering delusions of the defilements.
The third line, "akigiri ni," transposes the scripture's "light mist" into autumn fog, a figure for the defilements that obscure the mind.
The fourth line, "honoka ni miyuru," is the faint sight through the mist, showing that the enlightened mind has not yet fully appeared.
The last line, "ariake no tsuki," transposes the scripture's "moon disk" into the moon lingering in the dawn sky, and ends on a noun. In contrast to the "unclouded moon" mirrored in clear water in 1930, the moon here is dim behind the mist.
Author: Kōin
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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