Mushi no ne mo mare ni nariyuku Adashino ni hitori aki naru tsuki no kage kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

虫の音もまれになりゆくあだし野に
ひとり秋なる月の影かな

Roma-ji: Mushi no ne mo mare ni nariyuku Adashino ni hitori aki naru tsuki no kage kana
English Translation: The insects' voices too
grow rare and ever rarer
on Adashino moor,
where alone the autumn stays
in the light of the moon
Meaning: On the moor of Adashino, where even the insects' voices grow rare, only the moonlight still holds autumn.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 334

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
On the moor of Adashino, where even the insects' voices grow ever rarer, the poet says, the moonlight alone keeps the spirit of autumn. Setting the moon, which shines unchanged, against a lonely moor where the insects' voices die away, he depicts the desolation of the moor in late autumn.
The author, "Ninnaji Dōshō Hosshinnō," was an imperial prince who entered Ninnaji temple.
With this poem the insect poems end, and together with the next poem, 335, two poems follow on the moon that does not change amid autumn's passing.

First line, "mushi no ne mo": "mo," "the insects' voices too, along with all else." Here the insect poems that began with 328 of this book come to a close.
Second line, "mare ni nariyuku": "growing ever fewer," showing the fading of the insects' voices.
Third line, "Adashino ni": Adashino was a moor beyond Saga in the capital, known as a burial ground, a name that calls up transience.
Fourth line, "hitori aki naru": "alone keeping the spirit of autumn," the solitude of the moon that remains after the insects fall silent.
Fifth line, "tsuki no kage kana": "kage" is moonlight, and "kana" is exclamatory. It answers the next poem, 335, "the moon alone does not change in color," in singing of the unchanging moon.
Author: Imperial Prince Dōshō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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