Harukanaru Morokoshi made mo yuku mono wa aki no nezame no kokoro narikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

はるかなる唐土までも行くものは
秋の寝覚めの心なりけり

Roma-ji: Harukanaru Morokoshi made mo yuku mono wa aki no nezame no kokoro narikeri
English Translation: Far, far away,
even to distant China,
what travels there
is the heart that wakes from sleep
on a long autumn night
Meaning: What travels all the way to distant China is the heart of one who wakes in the night in autumn.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 302

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Waking suddenly on an autumn night and lying sleepless in thought, the poet says her heart travels all the way to distant China. By invoking a foreign land across the sea, a distance no one could easily cross, she conveys how endlessly the thoughts of a sleepless autumn night spread outward. The poem opens the second book of autumn poems.
The author, "Daini no Sanmi," is Fujiwara no Kenshi, daughter of Fujiwara no Nobutaka and Murasaki Shikibu. She served as wet nurse to Emperor Go-Reizei, and was known by this name because her husband Takashina no Nariakira became Senior Assistant Governor-General of Dazaifu. A poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The final poem of Book Four, 301, closed the first autumn book with the moon's "bed on a journey." This book takes it up and opens with the heart of one lying awake in bed setting off on a long journey. The book's final poem, 386, resents the "age of the gods" that fixed the end of autumn, so that the spatial distance of China at the opening answers the temporal distance of the age of the gods at the close.

First line, "harukanaru": "far distant," modifying "Morokoshi" in the second line.
Second line, "Morokoshi made mo": "Morokoshi" is an old name for China, and "made mo," "even as far as," stresses how far the heart goes. Words of distance are placed at the start and the end of the book, answered by "kamiyo mo sara ni" in the final poem, 386.
Third line, "yuku mono wa": "as for what goes there," posing a question whose answer is held over to the lower verse.
Fourth line, "aki no nezame no": "nezame" is waking suddenly in the night, showing one lying sleepless through the long autumn night. Taking up the "bed on a journey" of Book Four's final poem, 301, this book too begins with a person in bed.
Fifth line, "kokoro narikeri": "keri" expresses realization, "it was the heart," closing the poem.
Author: Fujiwara no Kenshi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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