Yamakawa no iwa ni sekarete chiru nami o arare to misuru natsu no yo no tsuki

山川の岩にせかれて散る波を
霰と見する夏の夜の月

Roma-ji: Yamakawa no iwa ni sekarete chiru nami o arare to misuru natsu no yo no tsuki
English Translation: Mountain river spray,
broken on the rocks and scattered,
the waves flying white
it shows to me as hailstones,
the moon of the summer night.
Meaning: The summer night's moon makes the spray of the mountain stream, breaking on the rocks and scattering, look like falling hail.
Commentary: Summer Poems 246

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composing poems on the summer moon"
This is the second of the summer moon poems. The spray flung up where a mountain stream strikes the rocks shines white in the moonlight, looking like falling hail. The summer moon turns the spray into the hail of winter.
Following the preceding poem, which likened moonlight to frost, this one likens the moonlit spray to hail, so for two poems the summer moon shows wintry things.

First line, “yamakawa no”: a river flowing through the mountains.
Second line, “iwa ni sekarete”: its course held back by rocks.
Third line, “chiru nami o”: the spray of waves scattering where they strike the rocks.
Fourth line, “arare to misuru”: making it look like hail, likening the spray shining white in the moonlight to hailstones.
Fifth line, “natsu no yo no tsuki”: the poem ends on a noun, naming the moon that makes the spray look like hail; it is the same closing line as 244 of this book.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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