Mikazuki no sayaka ni miezu kumogakure mimaku zo hoshiki utate kono koro - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

三日月のさやかに見えず雲隠れ
見まくぞほしきうたてこのころ

Roma-ji: Mikazuki no sayaka ni miezu kumogakure mimaku zo hoshiki utate kono koro
English Translation: Like the crescent moon,
not clearly seen, hidden there
behind the clouds, so
how I long to see you now,
more and more in these last days.
Meaning: Like the crescent moon that hides behind the clouds and cannot be clearly seen, I cannot see you, and these days I long so terribly to meet you.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 783

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem says that, as the crescent moon hides behind clouds and cannot be clearly seen, one cannot see the beloved, and these days the longing to meet grows unbearable. It lays the image of a lover hard to meet over the thin, faint light of the crescent moon.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a court poet of the Asuka period revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. Many Man'yōshū poems are included in the Shūishū under Hitomaro's name.
A similar poem is included in Book Eleven of the Man'yōshū.

First line, "mikazuki no," means "the crescent moon." Poems on the moon follow from here, continuing to 796.
Second line, "sayaka ni miezu," means "not clearly seen." It shares the word "sayaka" with the first line of 788, "sayaka ni mo."
Third line, "kumogakure," means "hidden in the clouds." The third lines of the next poems, 784 and 785, are also "kumogakure," so three poems share the same line. The whole upper verse figures the unseen beloved.
Fourth line, "mimaku zo hoshiki," means "how I long to see," with "mimaku" a nominal form of "mimu." It concludes in the attributive form "hoshiki" in answer to the binding particle "zo."
Final line, "utate kono koro," means "so badly, these days," inverted to strengthen the longing of the fourth line, with "utate" meaning increasingly or excessively.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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