Morotomo ni ariake no tsuki o mishi mono o ika naru yami ni kimi madouran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

もろともに有明の月を見しものを
いかなる闇に君まどふらん

Roma-ji: Morotomo ni ariake no tsuki o mishi mono o ika naru yami ni kimi madouran
English Translation: Together with you
I looked upon the moon
lingering at dawn,
yet now, in what darkness
are you wandering lost?
Meaning: Together we gazed at the moon lingering at dawn, yet now in what darkness are you wandering, lost?
Commentary: Book Nine Poems of Lament 576

Headnote: "Composed on looking at the moon when a woman I had been close to died"
Composed while looking at the moon when a woman the poet had been intimate with died. Together we looked at the moon of dawn, he says, yet in what darkness are you wandering now? Setting the brightness of the dawn moon the two once watched after a night together against the darkness of the world after death where she now wanders, he expresses the sorrow of watching the moon alone and his concern for the one who has died.
The author, "Fujiwara no Arinobu Ason," was the son of Fujiwara no Sanetsuna, an official of the late Heian period born into a family of scholars.
Poem 569 of this book follows the same turn of words as this one, "morotomo ni ... mishi mono o," contrasting what was seen together with the present in which one is left alone.

First line, "morotomo ni": "together." Poems 569 and 603 of this book open with the same words.
Second line, "ariake no tsuki o": the "ariake" moon lingers in the sky after daybreak, the moon seen at dawn when lovers part.
Third line, "mishi mono o": "mono o" is concessive, "though we saw it." It is the same as the third line of 569.
Fourth line, "ika naru yami ni": "in what darkness" wandered after death, set against the brightness of the dawn moon in the second line.
Fifth line, "kimi madouran": "madou" is to wander lost and "ran" the present conjectural, "are you wandering now?" Poem 555 of this book also sings of "yami ni madou."
Author: Fujiwara no Arinobu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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