Kozo miteshi aki no tsukuyo wa terasedomo aimishi imo wa iya tōzakari - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

去年見てし秋の月夜は照らせども
相見し妹はいや遠ざかり

Roma-ji: Kozo miteshi aki no tsukuyo wa terasedomo aimishi imo wa iya tōzakari
English Translation: The autumn moon
that we watched just last year
shines on as before,
but she who watched it with me
draws ever farther away.
Meaning: The autumn moon we watched last year shines just as it did, but my wife, who watched it with me, grows ever more distant.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1287

Headnote: "On seeing the moon in the autumn of the year after losing his wife"
The poet says that the autumn moon he watched last year still shines, but the wife who watched it with him grows ever more distant. The headnote shows it was composed on seeing the moon in the autumn of the year after his wife's death. Setting the moon that returns unchanged against the dead wife who recedes as time passes, he sings of a loss that deepens with the passing months.
The author, written as "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet who served in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he is revered as the Saint of Poetry. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
A similar poem appears in Book Two of the Man'yōshū as an envoy to his poems of tears of blood lamenting his wife's death, with the final line "iya toshi sakaru."

First line, "kozo miteshi," means "that I saw last year," with "teshi" perfective and past auxiliaries.
Second line, "aki no tsukuyo wa," means "the autumn moon," "tsukuyo" meaning the moon itself.
Third line, "terasedomo," means "though it shines," with "domo" a concessive particle.
Fourth line, "aimishi imo wa," means "my wife who watched it with me," taking up "miteshi" in the first line in "aimishi."
Final line, "iya tōzakari," means "draws ever farther away," with "iya" expressing increase. It trails off in the continuative form, leaving an echo.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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