帰りけん空も知られず姨捨の
山より出でし月を見しまに
山より出でし月を見しまに
- Roma-ji
-
Kaeriken sora mo shirarezu Obasute no yama yori ideshi tsuki o mishi ma ni
- English Translation
-
How I made my way
home I do not know at all,
nor the sky above—
while I watched the moon that rose
from Obasute's peak
- Meaning
- I cannot tell how I ever made my way home, nor under what sky—while I was gazing at the moon that rose from Mount Obasute.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Love Poems II 675
Headnote: "Sent the next morning after he returned home from a woman's house."
The poet says he cannot tell how he came home or under what sky, for he was gazing at the moon rising from Mount Obasute. He expresses a heart so lost in inconsolable longing, as he watched the moon on the way home from her, that he forgot himself.
According to the headnote, he sent it the next morning after returning from a woman's house. Drawing on the Kokin Wakashū poem "waga kokoro nagusamekanetsu Sarashina ya Obasuteyama ni teru tsuki o mite," it entrusts an inconsolable heart to the moon of Obasute.
The poet, Minamoto no Shigemitsu, was a son of Prince Yoshiakira, himself a son of Emperor Daigo, and served as Provisional Major Counselor.
The first line, "Kaeriken," means "how did I go home," with "ken" expressing conjecture about the past.
The second line, "sora mo shirarezu," means "I do not know even the sky," and the poem pauses here. "Sora" suggests both the direction of the road home and an absent-minded heart.
The third line, "Obasute no," means "of Mount Obasute," a poetic place in Shinano.
The fourth line, "yama yori ideshi," means "that rose from the mountain."
The last line, "tsuki o mishi ma ni," means "while I watched the moon," inverted with the first two lines.
- Author
- Minamoto no Shigemitsu
- Source
- Gosen Wakashu
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