いつとても月見ぬ秋はなきものを
わきて今宵のめづらしきかな
わきて今宵のめづらしきかな
- Roma-ji
-
Itsu tote mo tsuki minu aki wa naki mono o wakite koyoi no mezurashiki kana
- English Translation
-
There is no autumn,
whatever the year, that passes
without the moon, and yet
tonight above all others
how rare and wondrous it is
- Meaning
- There is no autumn when I do not see the moon, yet tonight's moon is wondrous above all others.
- Commentary
-
Book Six Autumn Poems II 325
Headnote: "The fifteenth night of the Eighth Month."
The poet says that there is no autumn in any year without seeing the moon, yet tonight's moon is wondrous above all. It praises the harvest moon of mid-autumn by comparing it with the autumn moon of other years.
According to the headnote, it was composed on the fifteenth night of the Eighth Month, the night of the mid-autumn moon. The next poem, under the same headnote, also sings of the moon of that night.
The poet, Fujiwara no Masatada, was a son of Fujiwara no Kanesuke, the Embankment Middle Counselor, and the grandfather of Murasaki Shikibu.
The first line, "Itsu tote mo," means "whenever it may be."
The second line, "tsuki minu aki wa," means "an autumn without seeing the moon."
In the third line, "mono o" is an adversative conjunctive particle: "though there is none."
In the fourth line, "wakite" means "above all, especially." The next poem, 326, answers with the same word in its fourth line, "wakite miyuru wa."
In the last line, "mezurashi" means "wonderful, splendid," and "kana" is an exclamatory particle.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Masatada
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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Aki no tsuki tsune ni kaku teru mono naraba yami ni furu mi wa majirazaramashi
- Next Poem
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Tsukikage wa onaji hikari no aki no yo o wakite miyuru wa kokoro narikeri