Ika bakari ureshikaramashi aki no yo no tsuki sumu sora ni kumo nakariseba

いかばかりうれしからまし秋の夜の
月澄む空に雲なかりせば

Roma-ji: Ika bakari ureshikaramashi aki no yo no tsuki sumu sora ni kumo nakariseba
English Translation: How much happier
I would be, if only on
the autumn night,
in the sky where the moon shines clear,
there were not a single cloud.
Meaning: How happy I would be if only there were no clouds in the sky where the autumn night's moon shines so clear.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 310

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The moon"
This poem continues the topic of the moon. If only there were no clouds in the sky where the autumn moon shines clear, how happy the poet would be. Lamenting that clouds in reality hide the moon, he expresses his longing for it by imagining a cloudless sky.
Where the preceding poem, pained by clouds, told the moon to set, this one wishes only that there were no clouds, continuing the resentment of clouds that hide the moon. It uses the seba ... mashi construction of supposition contrary to fact.

First line, “ika bakari”: how much, asking the measure of ureshikaramashi in the second line.
Second line, “ureshikaramashi”: mashi expresses supposition contrary to fact, answering seba in the last line, how happy I would be; the poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, “aki no yo no”: modifying tsuki in the fourth line.
Fourth line, “tsuki sumu sora ni”: in the sky where the moon gives its clear light.
Fifth line, “kumo nakariseba”: seba joins the conjectural form of the past auxiliary ki to ba, if there had been no clouds, a supposition against fact answering mashi.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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