Sora tōmi aki ya yokuran hisakata no tsuki no katsura no iro mo kawaranu - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

空遠み秋やよくらん久方の
月の桂の色も変はらぬ

Roma-ji: Sora tōmi aki ya yokuran hisakata no tsuki no katsura no iro mo kawaranu
English Translation: The sky is so far
that autumn passes it by, perhaps—
in the boundless heavens
the laurel growing on the moon
never changes in its hue
Meaning: Does autumn pass by because the sky is so far away? The laurel on the moon never changes its color.
Commentary: Book Six Autumn Poems II 327

Headnote: "On seeing the moon."
The poet wonders whether autumn passes the moon by because the sky is so far away, since the laurel on the moon never changes color. It is a witty poem explaining by the sky's distance why only the moon's laurel keeps its color while the trees on earth turn in autumn.
According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing the moon. From 327 to 334, eight poems stand together under the headnote "On seeing the moon."
The poet, Ki no Yoshimitsu, was a son of Ki no Haseo and rose to Imperial Adviser.

The first line, "Sora tōmi," means "because the sky is far," the so-called mi construction.
In the second line, "yoku" means to avoid or pass by; "ya" is an interrogative particle and "ran," the attributive form of the auxiliary of present conjecture, completes the kakarimusubi pattern. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "hisakata no," is a pillow word attached to "moon," "sky," "light," and the like.
The fourth line, "tsuki no katsura no," means "of the laurel on the moon," drawing on the same legend as "katsura no eda" in 321 of this book.
The last line, "iro mo kawaranu," means "its color does not change," singing, like "iro mo kawarazu," the last line of 322, of the moon's unchanging color.
Author: Ki no Yoshimitsu
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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