Tsuki machite ie ni wa yukamu waga saseru akara tachibana kage ni mietsutsu

月待ちて家には行かむ我が插せる
赤ら橘影に見えつつ

Roma-ji: Tsuki machite ie ni wa yukamu waga saseru akara tachibana kage ni mietsutsu
English Translation: I will wait for the moon
and then go home to my house—
the tachibana
glowing red that I have worn
shining in its light the while.
Meaning: I will wait for the moon to rise before going home, with the red tachibana I wear in my hair showing in its light.
Commentary: Book Eighteen 4060

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Seven poems from the time when the Retired Sovereign resided at the Naniwa Palace [this is Empress Kiyotarashihime]." "One poem by Princess Awata."
The poet says she will wait for the moon before going home, so that the red tachibana she wears in her hair may be seen in its light. Reluctant to let the banquet end, she wishes to enjoy the beauty of the tachibana received that day even in the moonlight, conveying the pleasure of the feast and her thanks to the host.
Princess Awata was a woman of the imperial family in the Nara period whose lineage is unclear.
The left note reads, "The poems above are the imperial poem and the courtiers' poems from an imperial banquet at the residence of Lord Tachibana, Minister of the Left."

First line, "tsuki machite": "waiting for the moon," showing that the banquet lasts into the night.
Second line, "ie ni wa yukamu": "mu" is an auxiliary of intention, "I will go home." The poem pauses after the second line.
Third line, "waga saseru": "that I wear in my hair," showing that tachibana were worn as ornaments at the banquet.
Fourth line, "akara tachibana": tachibana fruit ripened to red. It carries on the praise of the tachibana from the two preceding poems, now as something worn on the body.
Last line, "kage ni mietsutsu": "kage" here means moonlight, "while it shows in the light." It answers the "moon" of the first line, and the scene shifts from the tachibana "shining beneath the boughs" by day to tachibana in moonlight by night.
Author: Princess Awata
Source: Manyoshu
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