Tsuki mireba mazu miyako koso koishikere matsuramu to omou hito wa nakeredo - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

月見ればまづ都こそ恋しけれ
待つらむと思ふ人はなけれど

Roma-ji: Tsuki mireba mazu miyako koso koishikere matsuramu to omou hito wa nakeredo
English Translation: When I see the moon,
it is the capital first
that I long for so,
though there is no one there
who I think is waiting for me
Meaning: When I look at the moon, it is the capital above all that I long for, though there is no one there I think is waiting for me.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 521

Headnote: "Sent when, while I was staying for a time in Owari Province where I had connections, someone wrote asking whether I had forgotten the capital"
Sent in reply when, while the poet was staying for a time in Owari Province through some connection, someone wrote asking whether he had forgotten the capital. When I see the moon, it is the capital I long for first, though there is no one there I think is waiting for me, he says. Though no one waits for him, he answers that at the sight of the moon the capital comes to mind before anything else, conveying a heart far from forgetting it.
The author, "the Monk Dōin," had the lay name Fujiwara no Atsuyori and was the son of Fujiwara no Kiyotaka, Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs; he took the tonsure late in life. Known for his deep devotion to poetry, he organized the Sumiyoshi Shrine poetry contest. He has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "tsuki mireba": "ba" after the perfective form gives a fixed condition, "when I see the moon."
Second line, "mazu miyako koso": the emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective "koishikere" in the third line.
Third line, "koishikere": the perfective form of "koishi," "I long for it." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "matsuramu to omou": the present conjecture "ramu," "who I think would be waiting." The line has an extra syllable. In 506 of this book the poet grieves that his family "matsuramu" at Suminoe; 506, with someone waiting, and this poem, with no one waiting, form a pair.
Fifth line, "hito wa nakeredo": the concessive "do," "though there is no one," inverted with the third line.
Author: Dōin
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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