Tachiirade kumoma o wakeshi tsukikage wa matanu keshiki ya sora ni mieken - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

立ち入らで雲間を分けし月影は
待たぬけしきや空に見えけん

Roma-ji: Tachiirade kumoma o wakeshi tsukikage wa matanu keshiki ya sora ni mieken
English Translation: Not stopping to call,
parting the clouds, it passed on—
the moonlight, surely,
saw your look of not waiting
clearly there across the sky.
Meaning: The moon that parted the clouds and passed without stopping must have seen, there in the sky, that you were not waiting.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1976

Headnote: "Reply."
This is the fourth poem in the closing sequence of exchanges and moon poems turned toward the western paradise, a reply to the preceding poem. The moon that parted the clouds and passed without stopping must have seen in the sky that you were not waiting. The headnote reads "Reply," answering the preceding poem sent by Taikenmon-in no Horikawa.
Reproached for not visiting, he keeps the figure of himself as the moon and lightly turns the charge back: it was she who was not waiting.
The author, "Saigyō Hōshi," whose lay name was Satō Norikiyo, served as a guard of the north quarters of Retired Emperor Toba but took vows at twenty-three. He traveled through the provinces composing many poems, and his personal collection is the Sankashū.

The first line, "tachiirade," means "without stopping in," using the negative conjunctive particle "de." It expresses his passing by her gate as the course of the moon.
The second line, "kumoma o wakeshi," means "that parted the gaps in the clouds," using the attributive of the past "ki."
The third line, "tsukikage wa," takes up the "moonlight" of the poem sent to him, continuing the figure of himself as the moon.
The fourth line, "matanu keshiki ya," means "a look of not waiting," with a question in the particle "ya." It reverses the reproach of the "empty promise" in the poem sent to him into her not having waited.
The last line, "sora ni mieken," closes the kakari-musubi of "ya" with the attributive "ken." Taking up the "sky" of the poem sent to him, it surmises that this was visible in the sky, closing with a light-hearted riposte.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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