おほかたは月をもめでじこれぞこの
積もれば人の老いとなるもの
積もれば人の老いとなるもの
- Roma-ji
-
Ōkata wa tsuki o mo medeji kore zo kono tsumoreba hito no oi to naru mono
- English Translation
-
As a rule,
I will not love even the moon:
this, just this,
piling up, becomes at last
the old age of a man.
- Meaning
- As a rule, I will not cherish even the moon, for this is the very thing that, piling up, becomes a person's old age.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 879
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet resolves to refrain from loving the moon. Months spent gazing at the moon pile up into years and become a person's old age: by this reasoning, love of the moon is joined to fear of aging.
The author, "Narihira no Ason," is Ariwara no Narihira, son of Prince Abo, himself a son of Emperor Heizei, and one of the Six Poetic Immortals.
The poem also appears in Episode 88 of The Tales of Ise, as a poem from a gathering of no-longer-young friends viewing the moon. It bridges the sequence on the moon and the sequence on old age.
First line "ōkata wa" means as a rule, ordinarily.
Second line "tsuki o mo medeji" uses the negative volitional ji: "I will not love even the moon"; the poem pauses here.
Third line "kore zo kono" points to the moon, stressing "this very thing"; zo reaches to mono at the end.
Fourth line "tsumoreba hito no" refers to moons accumulating into years, overlaying the moon and the months.
Fifth line "oi to naru mono" ends with a noun, giving the conclusion that viewing the moon leads to old age. It links the moon poems that follow with the old-age poems from 889 on.
- Author
- Ariwara no Narihira
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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