Hisakata no tsuki ni oitaru katsuragawa soko naru kage mo kawarazarikeri - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

ひさかたの月におひたるかつら川
そこなる影もかはらざりけり

Roma-ji: Hisakata no tsuki ni oitaru katsuragawa soko naru kage mo kawarazarikeri
English Translation: Katsura River,
named for the moon's laurel tree
far beyond the clouds,
the moonlight in its depths too
remains just as it was then
Meaning: The Katsura River, named for the laurel that grows on the moon—even the moonlight in its depths has not changed at all.
Commentary: 55 The Sixteenth Day of the Second Month: Crossing the Katsura River and Arriving Home

On the sixteenth day of the second month, as they went up toward the capital around evening, they saw that the paintings on the shop chests of Yamazaki and the shape of the main street at Magari were unchanged from before. At Shimasaka someone offered them hospitality. Thinking to enter the capital after nightfall, they took their time, and meanwhile the moon rose. The party crossed the Katsura River under the bright moon. People said to one another, "This river is not the Asuka River, so its deep pools and shallows have not changed at all." Late at night they entered the capital, and when they reached the house and passed through the gate, the moon was so bright that everything could be clearly seen. The house was more broken down and ruined than they had heard, beyond words.
The Katsura River flows west of the capital and is crossed when entering the capital from Yamazaki. The Asuka River was regarded as the very emblem of change because of the Kokin Wakashū poem "Yo no naka wa nani ka tsune naru asukagawa kinō no fuchi zo kyō wa se ni naru." The house had been entrusted to the neighbor, whose home was separated only by a fence so that the two were almost one house; he had asked to look after it, and they had sent him things from time to time while they were away.
As they crossed the Katsura River, saying to one another that unlike the Asuka River its pools and shallows had not changed, a certain person composed this poem.
Then another person composed "Amagumo no haruka naritsuru katsuragawa sode o hidete mo watarinuru kana," and yet another "Katsuragawa waga kokoro ni mo kayowanedo onaji fukasa wa nagaru beranari." The diarist writes that in their joy at reaching the capital there were almost too many poems.

The first line, "Hisakata no," is a pillow word for "tsuki" (moon). The second line, "tsuki ni oitaru," means "that grows on the moon," drawing on the Chinese legend that a laurel tree grows there. The third line, "katsuragawa," plays on both the moon's laurel (katsura) and the name of the Katsura River.
The fourth line, "soko naru kage mo," means "even the moonlight reflected on the riverbed." The final line, "kawarazarikeri," closes with the exclamatory auxiliary "keri": it has not changed.
Linking the moon's laurel to the Katsura River through a pivot word, the poem overlays the relief of returning home safely on the moonlight on the water, unchanged from before. Taking up people's remarks that, unlike the Asuka River, the Katsura has not changed, it rejoices in the unchanging face of the capital.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
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