Hashikiyashi machikaki sato no kimi komu to ōnobi ni kamo tsuki no teritaru

はしきやし間近き里の君来むと
おほのびにかも月の照りたる

Roma-ji: Hashikiyashi machikaki sato no kimi komu to ōnobi ni kamo tsuki no teritaru
English Translation: Oh, my dearest one,
from the village close at hand,
you are coming, so—
is it at its ease that
the moon shines out so brightly?
Meaning: Ah, my dear one, you will come from the village nearby—is that why the moon shines out so calmly and so bright?
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 986

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems on the moon by Prince Yuhara"
The poem wonders whether the moon is shining so calmly because a dear one from a nearby village is expected to come. In this book, from 980 through 987, eight poems on the moon by different poets are arranged in succession. This is the second of Prince Yuhara's two moon poems and the seventh poem of the sequence.
It takes the brightly moonlit night as if the moon were shining to help the person living nearby on the way to visit. The poem joins the heart that awaits a visitor with the moonlight that lights the night road. "Ōnobi ni" in the fourth line is a word of uncertain meaning, and one view takes it to mean "at ease" or "leisurely."
The poet, Prince Yuhara, was a son of Prince Shiki, himself a son of Emperor Tenji, and was a poet of the early Nara period.

Within the sequence, where 980 and 981 waited impatiently for a moonrise delayed by the height of the mountains, in this poem the moon is already shining at its ease, and what is awaited shifts from the moon to a person who will come to visit.
The first line, "Oh, my dearest one," expresses affection and yearning for "you" in the following lines.
The second line, "from the village close at hand," shows where the visitor lives. Because it is so near, there is hope of a visit.
The third line, "you are coming, so," means "thinking you will come," with "mu" expressing conjecture. It gives the reason for the moon's shining.
The fourth line, "is it at its ease that," contains the word "ōnobi," whose meaning is uncertain but which is understood as "at ease" or "leisurely." "Kamo" is an interrogative binding particle resolved by "teritaru" in the final line.
The final line, "the moon shines out so brightly?" means "the moon is shining," closing in the attributive "teritaru" in response to the binding particle "kamo" in the fourth line.
Author: Prince Yuhara
Source: Manyoshu
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