Tou hito ni omoi yosoete miru tsuki no kumoru wa kaeru kokochi koso sure - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

訪ふ人に思ひよそへて見る月の
曇るは帰る心地こそすれ

Roma-ji: Tou hito ni omoi yosoete miru tsuki no kumoru wa kaeru kokochi koso sure
English Translation: When the moon I watch,
likening it in my heart
to one who comes to call,
clouds over, it seems to me
as though my friend were leaving
Meaning: When the moon that I watch, imagining it as a visitor, clouds over, it feels as though that friend were going home.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 980

Headnote: "On the theme "Taking the moon as a friend""
This poem was composed on the theme "taking the moon as a friend." When the moon I watch as though it were a visitor clouds over, it feels as if that friend were leaving, he says. In a lonely dwelling where no one comes and the moon is gazed on as a friend, the moon hidden by cloud is overlaid with the loneliness of a friend's departure.
The author, the "Later Lay Prince-Priest of Ninnaji," is Prince-Priest Kakushō. A son of Emperor Toba, he entered Ninnaji, took vows and became its abbot.
The moon poems that began with 978 of this book are arranged together from this poem through 1023.

First line, "tou hito ni": "to one who comes to visit."
Second line, "omoi yosoete": "yosou" means to liken, "likening it in my heart to a visitor."
Third line, "miru tsuki no": "the moon that I watch," expressing the theme of taking the moon as a friend.
Fourth line, "kumoru wa kaeru": the moon clouding over is overlaid with a friend going home.
Fifth line, "kokochi koso sure": the emphatic binding particle "koso" closes with the realis "sure," "such is the feeling I have."
Author: Prince-Priest Kakushō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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