なかなかに心尽くすも苦しきに
曇らば入りね秋の夜の月
曇らば入りね秋の夜の月
- Roma-ji
-
Nakanaka ni kokoro tsukusu mo kurushiki ni kumoraba irine aki no yo no tsuki
- English Translation
-
Since to spend my heart
only brings me pain the more,
if you will be clouded,
set behind the hills, I say,
moon of the autumn night.
- Meaning
- Since it only pains me the more to spend my heart on you, if you are going to be clouded over, then set and be gone, moon of the autumn night.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 309
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The moon"
This poem continues the topic of the moon. If he gazes at the moon with all his heart, the poet frets each time a cloud crosses it and only suffers more, so if it is going to be clouded anyway, let it set behind the mountains, he calls to the autumn moon. The pain of loving the moon too much is expressed through a paradoxical appeal.
The joy of the moonrise in the preceding poem turns here to the pain of gazing. In contrast with 314, which begs the moon not to set for a while, this poem pushes it away, so a poem telling the moon to set and a poem begging it to stay form a pair.
First line, “nakanaka ni”: all the more, rather.
Second line, “kokoro tsukusu mo”: even fretting over it as I gaze.
Third line, “kurushiki ni”: since it is painful, ni marking the reason.
Fourth line, “kumoraba irine”: ne is the imperative of the perfective nu, if you will cloud over, then set, calling to the moon.
Fifth line, “aki no yo no tsuki”: ending on a noun addressed to the moon, the same last line as in 314.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ureshi to ya matsu hito goto ni omouran yama no ha izuru aki no yo no tsuki
- Next Poem
-
Ika bakari ureshikaramashi aki no yo no tsuki sumu sora ni kumo nakariseba