classic waka stream

雲なくておぼろなりとも見ゆるかな
霞かかれる春の夜の月
Roma-ji

Kumo nakute oboro nari tomo miyuru kana kasumi kakareru haru no yo no tsuki

English Translation
Though there are no clouds,
how dim and hazy it appears,
how softly it glows:
with the haze drawn over it,
the moon on a night in spring.
Meaning
Though there are no clouds, how hazy it looks: the moon on a spring night with the haze drawn over it.
Commentary
Spring Poems 51

Headnote: "On seeing the moon clouded by haze"
This poem was composed on seeing the moon clouded by haze. Though there are no clouds in the sky, the moon looks dim because haze hangs over it, and that, the poet says, is just how the moon of a spring night should be.
Against the clear moon of autumn, the spring moon was prized as the hazy oboro moon. The poem captures this quintessentially spring quality of a moon dimmed not by clouds but by haze.

First line, “kumo nakute”: though there are no clouds.
Second line, “oboro nari tomo”: as dim and blurred.
Third line, “miyuru kana”: so it appears, with the exclamatory kana and a break after the third line.
Fourth line, “kasumi kakareru”: with haze hanging over it, ru marking a continuing state; this is the reason the moon looks dim.
Fifth line, “haru no yo no tsuki”: the poem closes on a noun, the moon of a spring night; the upper and lower halves are inverted.
Author
Saigyō
Source
Sankashu
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