Sarashina ya Obasuteyama ni tsuki miru to miyako ni tare ka ware o shiru ran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

更級や姨捨山に月見ると
都に誰か我を知るらん

Roma-ji: Sarashina ya Obasuteyama ni tsuki miru to miyako ni tare ka ware o shiru ran
English Translation: At Sarashina,
that I gaze upon the moon
on Mount Obasute,
who in the capital
could possibly know of me?
Meaning: Who in the capital could know that I am gazing at the moon on Mount Obasute in Sarashina?
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 512

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the theme of travel when he called for a hundred-poem sequence"
A poem on the topic of travel from the Kyūan Hyakushu. Who in the capital could know that I am gazing at the moon on Mount Obasute in Sarashina? the poet asks. Having reached the most famous place for moon-viewing, he feels the loneliness of knowing that no one in the capital is aware of him watching it.
The author, "Fujiwara no Suemichi Ason," was the son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Munemichi. Though not of high rank, he excelled at the koto and biwa and was one of the poets of the Kyūan Hyakushu.
It is the fourth in the sequence of travel poems from the Kyūan Hyakushu. Ever since an anonymous Kokin Wakashū poem told of being unable to find solace while gazing at the moon over Mount Obasute in Sarashina, its moon has been known as one that cannot console. Book Seven's poem 496 had the one seeing a traveler off plead not to forget the dawn sky of departure even when viewing the moon of Obasute. Here, from the traveler's side, the poet laments that no one in the capital knows he is viewing that moon, and the two poems answer each other.

First line, "Sarashina ya": the district of Sarashina in Shinano, with the exclamatory "ya."
Second line, "Obasuteyama ni": Mount Obasute is a poetic place in Sarashina famed for its moon, drawing on the Kokin Wakashū poem.
Third line, "tsuki miru to": "that I view the moon," stating what the following lines ask about.
Fourth line, "miyako ni tare ka": the interrogative "ka" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "ware o shiru ran": the present conjecture "ran," "who could know?", a lament that amounts to "no one knows."
Author: Fujiwara no Suemichi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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