Nagametsutsu mukashi mo tsuki wa mishi mono o kaku ya wa sode no hima nakaru beki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ながめつつ昔も月は見しものを
かくやは袖のひまなかるべき

Roma-ji: Nagametsutsu mukashi mo tsuki wa mishi mono o kaku ya wa sode no hima nakaru beki
English Translation: Lost in brooding thought,
long ago I looked as well
upon the moon, and yet
was there ever such a time
my sleeves had no space to dry?
Meaning: Long ago, too, I gazed at the moon lost in thought, yet was there ever a time when my sleeves had no moment free of tears as they do now?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 985

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Long ago too I gazed at the moon in brooding thought, yet was there ever a time my sleeves had no moment to dry, she asks. She compares past and present: she looked at the moon in the same way long ago, but never wept as she does now, and so she voices the depth of her present grief.
The author, "Sagami," is said to have been a daughter of Minamoto no Yorimitsu. She took her name from becoming the wife of Ōe no Kinsuke, Governor of Sagami. She served Princess Shūshi of the First Rank. She is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals of the Middle Ages, and a poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Where the preceding poem, 984, sings of brooding while looking at tonight's moon, this one compares the moon of the past with the moon of the present and sings of how her brooding has deepened.

First line, "nagametsutsu": "tsutsu" is a conjunctive particle of continuation, "while gazing, lost in thought."
Second line, "mukashi mo tsuki wa": "long ago too, the moon," comparing past and present.
Third line, "mishi mono o": "shi" is the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki" and "mono o" an adversative conjunctive particle, "though I looked upon it."
Fourth line, "kaku ya wa sode no": "kaku" means thus, and "ya wa" is a rhetorical binding particle closing with "beki" in the fifth line.
Fifth line, "hima nakaru beki": "hima" means a respite for the tears to dry, and "beki" is the attributive of the conjectural "beshi," "was there ever such a time without respite?"
Author: Sagami
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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