Nishi e yuku shirube to omou tsukikage no soradanome koso kai nakarikere - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

西へ行くしるべと思ふ月影の
そらだのめこそかひなかりけれ

Roma-ji: Nishi e yuku shirube to omou tsukikage no soradanome koso kai nakarikere
English Translation: As a guide to go
westward I had thought of it—
yet the moonlight's
promise, empty as the sky,
how futile it has proved!
Meaning: The moonlight I trusted as my guide to the west—how futile its promise proved, as empty as the sky.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1975

Headnote: "When I invited Saigyō Hōshi, he said he would come but did not, and on a night of bright moonlight, hearing that he had passed before my gate, I composed this and sent it."
This is the third poem in the closing sequence of exchanges and moon poems turned toward the western paradise. The moonlight she had relied on as a guide for going west proved an empty promise, and how futile it was. According to the headnote, she invited Saigyō Hōshi; though he said he would come, he did not, and hearing that he had passed before her gate on a bright moonlit night, she composed this and sent it to him.
She likens Saigyō, on whom she had relied to guide her to the Western Pure Land, failing to visit to the moon passing across the sky, and writes with a touch of reproach.
The author, "Taikenmon-in no Horikawa," was a daughter of Minamoto no Akinaka, Chief of the Office of Deities, and a lady-in-waiting and poet who served Taikenmon-in, empress of Emperor Toba.
The next poem, 1976, is Saigyō's reply.

The first line, "nishi e yuku," signifies rebirth in the Western Pure Land and at the same time works in the name "Saigyō" (going west).
The second line, "shirube to omou," means "relied on as a guide," showing her reliance on Saigyō as a guide to rebirth.
The third line, "tsukikage no," is the moonlight, likening Saigyō to the moon that crosses westward.
In the fourth line, "soradanome koso," "sora" is a pivot word joining the "sky" the moon crosses and "soradanome," an empty promise. The particle "koso" gives emphasis.
The last line, "kai nakarikere," closes the kakari-musubi of "koso" with the realis "kere," lamenting that it was futile. Saigyō's reply in the next poem answers by taking up this "sky" and "moonlight."
Author: Taikenmon-in no Horikawa
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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