classic waka stream

木枯らしの雲吹き払ふ高嶺より
冴えても月の澄みのぼるかな
Roma-ji

Kogarashi no kumo fukiharau takane yori saete mo tsuki no suminoboru kana

English Translation
From the lofty peak
where the withering wind has swept
the clouds away,
cold and piercing in its light
the clear moon climbs the sky
Meaning
From the high peak where the withering wind has swept away the clouds, the moon rises, cold and piercingly clear.
Commentary
Book Four Autumn Poems I 276

Headnote: "Composed when presenting a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
A moon poem from the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence. From the high peak where the cold withering wind has swept the clouds clean away, the moon rises, chill and piercing, shedding its clear light. Overlaying the cold of the wind with the keenness of the moonlight, the poem captures the austere beauty of a crystal-clear late autumn night sky.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. The central poet of Emperor Horikawa's poetry circle, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa and wrote the treatise Toshiyori Zuinō. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem and the next, 277, are both moon poems from the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence. After the preceding poem, 275, showed the moon waiting beyond the clouds on the high peaks for nightfall, this one shows those clouds swept away and the moon rising from the peak.

First line, "kogarashi no": "kogarashi" is the strong, cold wind that blows from late autumn into winter.
Second line, "kumo fukiharau": "sweeping the clouds clean away." Taking up the moon behind the clouds in the preceding poem, 275, it shows a sky cleared of them.
Third line, "takane yori": "from the high peak," like "takane no kumo no" in the preceding poem, 275.
Fourth line, "saete mo tsuki no": "saeru" means to be chill and piercing, describing the cold, clear brilliance of the moonlight.
Fifth line, "suminoboru kana": "rising clear," with "kana" exclamatory.
Author
Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source
Senzai Wakashu
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