Musubu te ni suzushiki kage o shitau kana shimizu ni yadoru natsu no yo no tsuki

掬ぶ手に涼しき影を慕ふかな
清水に宿る夏の夜の月

Roma-ji: Musubu te ni suzushiki kage o shitau kana shimizu ni yadoru natsu no yo no tsuki
English Translation: In the cupping hand,
for that cool light how I yearn,
lingering awhile,
held within the clear spring's flow,
the moon of the summer night.
Meaning: How I long for the cool light held in my cupped hands, the moon of the summer night that lodges in the clear spring water.
Commentary: Summer Poems 244

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the topic of facing a spring and viewing the moon"
Like the preceding poem, this one is on the topic of facing a spring and viewing the moon. When the poet scoops up the clear spring water, the moon of the summer night lodges in it, shining coolly. He grieves to see that cool light in his hands slip away and yearns for it.
Where the preceding poem saw the moon in the spring as a mirror that cannot be held, this one tells of yearning for the coolness of the moon in the hand, treating the same moon in a spring as something beyond reach and as something dear.

First line, “musubu te ni”: in the hands scooping water, taking up musubiaguru in the first line of the preceding poem.
Second line, “suzushiki kage o”: kage is light, here the cool gleam of the moon mirrored in the water in the hands.
Third line, “shitau kana”: to yearn for with reluctance to part, with the exclamatory kana making a break after the third line.
Fourth line, “shimizu ni yadoru”: yadoru is for the moon to be mirrored in and stay in the water.
Fifth line, “natsu no yo no tsuki”: the poem ends on a noun, naming the moon yearned for afterwards in an inversion.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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