Aki o hete hikari o mase to omoishi ni omowanu tsuki no kage ni mo aru kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋を経て光をませと思ひしに
思はぬ月の影にもあるかな

Roma-ji: Aki o hete hikari o mase to omoishi ni omowanu tsuki no kage ni mo aru kana
English Translation: As the autumns passed
I had hoped your light would grow
brighter with the years,
yet how unforeseen a moon
is the radiance I see
Meaning: I had hoped that with each passing autumn your light would grow brighter, yet how unexpected is the moon I now see.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 979

Headnote: "Attached to a fan paper on which a moon was painted, sent after the Sanjō Consort Sōshi had renounced the world"
After the Sanjō Consort Sōshi had renounced the world and taken vows, this poem was attached when he sent her a fan paper painted with a moon. I hoped that your light would grow with the passing autumns, yet how unforeseen a moon this is, he says. He laments, through the image of the moon painted on the fan, that the one he had hoped would flourish year by year as an imperial consort has entered religious life.
The author, "Provisional Middle Counselor Sanetsuna," is Fujiwara no Sanetsuna. A son of Sanjō Kinnori, he rose to provisional middle counselor. He was a brother of the Sanjō Consort Sōshi.
Following the preceding poem, 978, which likens the moon to the emperor, this poem likens it to an imperial consort. In the original headnote one character of the consort's name appears as an illegible mark, but since the Sanjō Consort is identified as Fujiwara no Sōshi, consort of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, the name is given here as Sōshi.

First line, "aki o hete": "as the autumns pass," expressing the passing of years through autumn, the season of the beautiful moon.
Second line, "hikari o mase to": "mase" is the imperative of "masu," to increase, "that your light might grow," expressing the wish for her prosperity as a consort.
Third line, "omoishi ni": "shi" is the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki" and "ni" an adversative conjunctive particle, "though I had hoped."
Fourth line, "omowanu tsuki no": "of an unexpected moon," standing for the consort who has taken vows. It pairs with "omoishi" in the third line.
Fifth line, "kage ni mo aru kana": "kage" means the form or light of the moon, and "kana" is exclamatory, "how unforeseen a form it is."
Author: Fujiwara no Sanetsuna
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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