Kaku bakari uki yo no naka no omoiide ni miyo to mo sumeru yowa no tsuki kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

かくばかり憂き世の中の思ひ出でに
見よとも澄める夜半の月かな

Roma-ji: Kaku bakari uki yo no naka no omoiide ni miyo to mo sumeru yowa no tsuki kana
English Translation: As a memory
of this sorrowful world
given me to keep,
clear it shines as if to say "Look":
the moon in the depth of night
Meaning: As if to say, "Look at me, as a memory of this sorrowful world," the midnight moon shines so very clear.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 987

Headnote: "Composed when I had much on my mind and the moon was exceedingly bright"
This poem was composed on a night of exceedingly bright moonlight, at a time when he was troubled. The midnight moon shines clear as if to say, look at me as a memory of this sorrowful world, he says. To one sunk in sorrow, the beauty of the clear moon alone seems the one consoling memory of this painful world, and he takes it as though the moon were speaking to him.
The author, the "Kuga Palace Minister," is Minamoto no Masamichi. A son of Minamoto no Akimichi, he was adopted by Minamoto no Masasada and rose to palace minister. He was called the Kuga Palace Minister.
It shares the fifth line, "yowa no tsuki kana," with the next poem, 988. Where this poem accepts the clear moon as consolation in a sorrowful world, the next laments a moon that shines too brightly on the mountain village where one would hide, so that feelings toward the same clear moon are reversed.

First line, "kaku bakari": "so very," modifying "uki" in the second line.
Second line, "uki yo no naka no": "of this sorrowful world."
Third line, "omoiide ni": "as a memory," with the implication of the one good memory in a painful world.
Fourth line, "miyo to mo sumeru": "miyo" is an imperative, "shining clear as if to say 'Look.'" The "ru" of "sumeru" is the attributive of the continuative "ri."
Fifth line, "yowa no tsuki kana": "yowa" means the middle of the night, and "kana" is exclamatory. It is the same line as the fifth line of the next poem, 988.
Author: Minamoto no Masamichi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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