Sa mo koso wa kage todomu beki yo narane do ato naki mizu ni yadoru tsuki kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さもこそは影とどむべき世ならねど
跡なき水に宿る月かな

Roma-ji: Sa mo koso wa kage todomu beki yo narane do ato naki mizu ni yadoru tsuki kana
English Translation: True, this is no world
where any image can endure,
and yet even so
on the water leaving no trace
the moon finds lodging here
Meaning: True, this is not a world where any image can stay, and yet the moon lodges in water that flows on and leaves no trace.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1012

Headnote: "Composed on the theme "The moon on the water""
This poem was composed on the theme "the moon on the water." True, this is no world where an image can remain, yet the moon lodges in traceless water, he says. Accepting that nothing stays in this impermanent world, he finds both fragility and beauty in the moon briefly casting its image even on water that flows away and leaves no trace.
The author, "Fujiwara no Iemoto," was a poet of the late Heian period whose biography is not known in detail.
Where the preceding poem, 1011, sings of well water covered in weeds where the moon is not reflected, this one sings of the moon lodging in flowing water. It also shares the moon lodging in water with "yadoranu mizu no ikade nakaran" in 982 of this book.

First line, "sa mo koso wa": "truly, so it is," which answers "ne do" in the third line to express concession.
Second line, "kage todomu beki": "kage" means image, "such that an image could remain."
Third line, "yo narane do": "ne" is the realis of the negative "zu" and "do" an adversative conjunctive particle, "though it is not such a world."
Fourth line, "ato naki mizu ni": "in water that flows on leaving no trace," a figure for impermanence.
Fifth line, "yadoru tsuki kana": "yadoru" means for the moon's image to be reflected in water, and "kana" is exclamatory. It answers "yadoranu mizu no" in the fourth line of 982 of this book.
Author: Fujiwara no Iemoto
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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