さらぬだに光涼しき夏の夜の
月を清水に宿してぞ見る
月を清水に宿してぞ見る
- Roma-ji
-
Saranu dani hikari suzushiki natsu no yo no tsuki o shimizu ni yadoshite zo miru
- English Translation
-
The summer night's moon
whose light is cool enough
even as it is,
I gaze at, letting it dwell
within the clear spring water
- Meaning
- The summer night's moon, whose light is cool enough already, I gaze upon reflected in the clear spring water.
- Commentary
-
Book Three Summer Poems 213
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet gazes at the summer night's moon, whose light is cool enough already, reflected in clear spring water, to savor a coolness doubled. Layering the coolness of the spring over that of the moonlight, the poem expresses the wish to pass the summer night in twofold coolness.
The author, "Priest Kenshō," was a monk adopted as a nominal son by Fujiwara no Akisuke. Heir to the poetic learning of the Rokujō Fujiwara house, he was a scholar of poetry who wrote commentaries such as the Shūchūshō.
First line, "saranu dani": "even if it were not so."
Second line, "hikari suzushiki": "whose light is cool."
Third line, "natsu no yo no": modifies "tsuki" in the fourth line. Poem 216 of this book also speaks of "the summer night's moon."
Fourth line, "tsuki o shimizu ni": "the moon, in the clear spring." Where the two preceding poems spoke of the sound and flow of spring water, this one shows the moon reflected in it.
Fifth line, "yadoshite zo miru": "yadosu" means to let something be reflected in water, and "zo" closes with the attributive "miru."
- Author
- Kenshō
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Iwama moru shimizu o yado ni sekitomete hoka yori natsu o sugushitsuru kana
- Next Poem
-
Sekitomuru yamashitamizu ni migakurete sumikeru mono o aki no keshiki wa