Aki no yo no tsuki miru to nomi okiitsutsu koyoi mo nede ya ware wa kaeran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋の夜の月見るとのみ起き居つつ
今宵も寝でや我は帰らん

Roma-ji: Aki no yo no tsuki miru to nomi okiitsutsu koyoi mo nede ya ware wa kaeran
English Translation: Of an autumn night
only to view the moon, so
staying up awake,
must I again tonight go
home without having lain down?
Meaning: Staying up only to view the moon of an autumn night, must I go home again tonight without ever lying down with you?
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 786

Headnote: "On a folding screen for the Retired Emperor En'yū: a house where the moon of the fifteenth night of the Eighth Month is reflected in the pond, with a man and woman courting"
The poem asks whether one will stay up merely to view the autumn moon and go home again tonight without lying together. The headnote shows it was composed for a scene on a folding screen of the Retired Emperor En'yū, where a man and woman converse at a house whose pond reflects the harvest moon of mid-autumn. Speaking in the voice of a figure in the painting, it sings of a man who spends the night under the pretext of moon-viewing yet cannot fulfill his love.
The author, "Taira no Kanemori," was a poet of the Taira line descended from Emperor Kōkō who served as governor of Suruga and elsewhere. He is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets and is known for the poem "shinoburedo iro ni idenikeri" at the Tentoku Palace poetry contest.

First line, "aki no yo no," means "of an autumn night." It is the same line as the first line of the preceding poem, 785.
Second line, "tsuki miru to nomi," means "only to view the moon," with "nomi" showing moon-viewing as a pretext.
Third line, "okiitsutsu," means "staying up," with "tsutsu" marking continuing action.
Fourth line, "koyoi mo nede ya," means "tonight again without sleeping," with "de" a negative conjunctive particle and "ya" an interrogative binding particle, implying without lying together. It shares the lament of "tonight again" with the fourth line of 777, "koyoi mo mata ya."
Final line, "ware wa kaeran," means "shall I go home," concluding in the attributive form of the conjectural "n" in answer to "ya."
Author: Taira no Kanemori
Source: Shui Wakashu
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