Morotomo ni mishi hito ika ni nariniken tsuki wa mukashi ni kawarazarikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

もろともに見し人いかになりにけん
月は昔に変はらざりけり

Roma-ji: Morotomo ni mishi hito ika ni nariniken tsuki wa mukashi ni kawarazarikeri
English Translation: Those with whom I watched,
together in the days gone by,
what became of them?
The moon alone remains
unchanged from long ago
Meaning: What has become of those with whom I used to watch the moon? The moon itself has not changed at all from long ago.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 995

Headnote: "Composed on the theme "Expressing one's feelings before the moon" when I returned after years of wandering in religious practice"
Having traveled the provinces for years in religious practice, he returned to the capital and composed this poem on the theme "expressing one's feelings before the moon." What has become of those with whom I once watched? The moon has not changed from of old, he says. Back in the capital after long absence, he finds the moon shining as before while those who once gazed with him have gone he knows not where, and he sings of the contrast between unchanging nature and the shifting world of people.
The author, "Priest Tōren," was a monk of the late Heian period and one of the poets who gathered at Shun'e's Karin'en. Essays in Idleness records an anecdote of his setting out in the rain to ask about the "masuho" pampas grass.
It shares the fifth line, "kawarazarikeri," with 1033 of this book, the two being alike in singing of nature unchanged though human hearts change.

First line, "morotomo ni": "together."
Second line, "mishi hito ika ni": "shi" is the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki," "those who once watched."
Third line, "nariniken": "ni" is the continuative of the perfective "nu" and "ken" the past conjectural auxiliary, "what has become of them?" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "tsuki wa mukashi ni": "the moon, compared with long ago," contrasting changing people with the unchanging moon.
Fifth line, "kawarazarikeri": "zari" is the continuative of the negative "zu" and "keri" expresses exclamation at a realization, "it has not changed." It is the same line as the fifth line of 1033 of this book.
Author: Tōren
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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