Mizu no omo ni tsuki no shizumu o mizariseba ware hitori to ya omoihatemashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

水の面に月の沈むを見ざりせば
我一人とや思ひ果てまし

Roma-ji: Mizu no omo ni tsuki no shizumu o mizariseba ware hitori to ya omoihatemashi
English Translation: Had I never seen
the moon upon the water
sinking there below,
would I not have come to think
that I alone had sunk?
Meaning: Had I not seen the moon sinking in the water's surface, I would surely have come to believe that I alone was sunk in obscurity.
Commentary: Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 442

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When Lord Ren'gi was living at the Retired Emperor's Palace, he summoned poets and had them compose on the topic "The Autumn Moon on the Water""
The poet says that had he not seen the moon sinking in the water, he would have believed he alone was sunk. On the same topic, "The Autumn Moon on the Water," as the preceding poem, 441, it sees the reflected moon as a moon sunk in the water and takes comfort that his own sunken fortunes have company. Where the preceding poem lamented by contrasting the floating moon with his sunken self, this one consoles by overlaying the sinking moon and the sinking self, so two poems treating the same topic from opposite ideas stand side by side.
The author, Fumitoki, Senior Assistant Minister of Ceremonial, is Sugawara no Fumitoki. A grandson of Sugawara no Michizane, he served as Professor of Letters and Senior Assistant Minister of Ceremonial and rose to the Junior Third Rank. He was known as the foremost master of Chinese verse and prose of his day.

First line, "mizu no omo ni," means "on the water's surface." Against the first line of the preceding poem, "minasoko ni," in the depths, it names the surface, forming a contrast of above and below.
Second line, "tsuki no shizumu o," means "the moon sinking," treating the reflected moon as a moon sunk under the water. It takes up "shizumu ya" in the fourth line of the preceding poem.
Third line, "mizariseba," means "had I not seen," with "se" the irrealis form of the past auxiliary "ki," answering "mashi" in the final line to express a counterfactual.
Fourth line, "ware hitori to ya," means "that I alone," with "ya" a questioning particle.
Final line, "omoihatemashi," means "I would have come to believe," resolving "ya" with the attributive form of "mashi." Implicitly it voices the comfort that, having seen the moon, he knows he is not alone.
Author: Sugawara no Fumitoki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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