Aki no tsuki tsune ni kaku teru mono naraba yami ni furu mi wa majirazaramashi - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋の月常にかく照るものならば
闇に経る身はまじらざらまし

Roma-ji: Aki no tsuki tsune ni kaku teru mono naraba yami ni furu mi wa majirazaramashi
English Translation: If the autumn moon
would always shine as it does,
then I who pass my days
in darkness would not be
mingled with the dark at all
Meaning: If the autumn moon always shone like this, I who live my days in darkness would not be lost in it.
Commentary: Book Six Autumn Poems II 324

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "At the poetry contest at the residence of Prince Koresada."
The poet says that if the autumn moon always shone like this, one who lives in darkness would not be mingled with the dark. Gazing up at the bright autumn moon, the poet laments a self sunk in the darkness of the heart.
Both 323 and 324 of this book are poems from the poetry contest at Prince Koresada's residence.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Aki no tsuki," means "the autumn moon."
The second line, "tsune ni kaku teru," means "always shining like this."
In the third line, "ba" gives a hypothetical condition: "if it were such a thing."
The fourth line, "yami ni furu mi wa," means "I who pass my days in darkness," pointing to the darkness of the heart that recalls "kuma" in the preceding poem.
In the last line, "mashi" is an auxiliary of counterfactual supposition, answering the third line: "I would not be mingled with the dark."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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