Wata no hara haruka ni nami o hedatekite miyako ni ideshi tsuki o miru kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

わたの原遥かに波を隔て来て
都に出でし月を見るかな

Roma-ji: Wata no hara haruka ni nami o hedatekite miyako ni ideshi tsuki o miru kana
English Translation: Over the wide sea,
setting the waves far between
myself and home,
I look upon the moon
that rose for me in the capital
Meaning: Having come across the wide sea with waves stretching far between me and home, I look upon the same moon that rose over the capital.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 516

Headnote: "Composed on seeing the moon on a sea journey while practicing austerities after renouncing the world"
Composed on seeing the moon on a sea voyage while traveling in ascetic practice after taking the tonsure. Having crossed the wide sea with waves stretching far behind, I look upon the moon that rose over the capital, the poet says. Even in a land reached far across the sea, the moon rises just as it did in the capital, and in this he feels both nostalgia for home and the distance of his journey.
The author, "the Monk En'i," is Saigyō. His lay name was Satō Norikiyo, and he was a guard in the Northern Quarters of Retired Emperor Toba, but took the tonsure at twenty-three; En'i is his Buddhist name. He traveled the provinces composing many poems and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
In a Kokin Wakashū poem, Abe no Nakamaro, gazing at the moon in China, wonders whether it is the moon that rose over Mount Mikasa at home, and the "ideshi tsuki" of this poem recalls it.

First line, "wata no hara": "the wide sea." Poem 530 of this book also opens with "wata no hara."
Second line, "haruka ni nami o": "the waves stretching far."
Third line, "hedatekite": "having come with them between," meaning he is far from the capital.
Fourth line, "miyako ni ideshi": "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," "that rose in the capital," recalling Abe no Nakamaro's "ideshi tsuki kamo."
Fifth line, "tsuki o miru kana": the exclamatory "kana."
Author: Saigyō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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