Kono koto o kikamu to narashi masokagami tereru tsukuyo mo yami nomi ni mitsu

この言を聞かむとならしまそ鏡
照れる月夜も闇のみに見つ

Roma-ji: Kono koto o kikamu to narashi masokagami tereru tsukuyo mo yami nomi ni mitsu
English Translation: It must have been so
that I might hear these words:
bright as a clear mirror
shone the moonlit night, yet I
saw it only as darkness
Meaning: It must have been so that I might hear these words of yours that I saw even the bright moonlit night as nothing but darkness.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2811

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
The speaker replies that the gloom which made even a brightly shining moonlit night seem nothing but darkness must have been so that these words might be heard. Taking up the words of love in the preceding poem, it sings of the joy of a heart, long clouded, finding its reward.
As the left note "the two poems above" shows, this answering poem forms a pair with the preceding one. It takes up "masokagami" from the third line of the preceding poem in its own third line, but where the preceding poem used the pillow word to lead into "tadame," here it leads into "tereru," shining. The contrast between rumor and direct sight in the preceding poem is answered here by the contrast between a bright moonlit night and darkness.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "kono koto o": "these words," pointing to the words of love spoken in the preceding poem.
Second line, "kikamu to narashi": "it must have been in order to hear." "Narashi" is a contraction of "naru rashi," the copula "nari" with the inferential "rashi," expressing a grounded supposition. A pause falls after the second line, which stands in inverted order to what follows.
Third line, "masokagami": a clear, bright mirror; because a mirror shines, it is a pillow word attached to "teru," to shine. It answers by placing the same word as the third line of the preceding poem.
Fourth line, "tereru tsukuyo mo": "even the shining moonlit night." "Ru" is the attributive form of the auxiliary of continuing state "ri," and "tsukuyo" means the moon or a moonlit night.
Fifth line, "yami nomi ni mitsu": "I saw it only as darkness." "Nomi" limits and "tsu" is the perfective auxiliary, expressing how, sunk in the brooding of love, the speaker could not take in even the bright moonlit night.
Source: Manyoshu
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