Io ni moru tsuki no kage koso sabishikere yamada wa hita no oto bakari shite

庵に漏る月の影こそさびしけれ
山田は引板の音ばかりして

Roma-ji: Io ni moru tsuki no kage koso sabishikere yamada wa hita no oto bakari shite
English Translation: Lonely it is truly,
the moonlight that leaks into
this rough little hut,
while in hillside fields there sounds
only clappers scaring birds.
Meaning: Lonely indeed is the moonlight that leaks into my hut, while in the hillside paddies nothing sounds but the clatter of the bird clappers.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 303

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When people composed ten autumn poems each"
This is the eighth poem in the set of ten. The moonlight leaking through the gaps of the rough hut is lonely indeed, while in the hillside paddies only the clappers that scare off birds and beasts can be heard. Through moonlight and the sound of the clappers, the poem paints the hushed loneliness of a hut beside autumn fields in the hills.
Where the preceding poem rejoiced in the moon dwelling in the mountain village, this one makes the same moonlight deepen loneliness, showing that the moon brings both joy and loneliness to the village.

First line, “io ni moru”: leaking in through the gaps of a rough hut.
Second line, “tsuki no kage koso”: kage is light, and koso forms a kakari-musubi with the perfective sabishikere in the third line.
Third line, “sabishikere”: the perfective form answering koso, how lonely it is; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “yamada wa hita no”: hita is a clapper of board and bamboo tubes rattled by a rope to drive birds and beasts from the fields.
Fifth line, “oto bakari shite”: with only that sound, closing on a loneliness with no other sign of people.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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