秋の夜の月を雪かとまがふれば
露も霰の心地こそすれ
露も霰の心地こそすれ
- Roma-ji
-
Aki no yo no tsuki o yuki ka to magaureba tsuyu mo arare no kokochi koso sure
- English Translation
-
On the autumn night,
since I take the moon for snow,
mistaking it so,
even the dew seems to me
to be hail upon the grass.
- Meaning
- Since I mistake the autumn night's moonlight for snow, even the dew on the grass feels to me like hail.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 317
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The moon"
This poem continues the topic of the moon. The autumn moonlight is so white and clear that the poet takes it for snow, and then even the dew on the grasses seems to him like hail. From the figure of moonlight as snow he extends the association and likens the dew to hail.
Where the preceding poem likened the dew to jewels, here the same dew is likened to hail, and the autumn night seems turned by moonlight into a winter scene.
First line, “aki no yo no”: modifying tsuki in the second line.
Second line, “tsuki o yuki ka to”: taking the moonlight for snow, drawing on the familiar figure of moonlight as snow.
Third line, “magaureba”: magau is to be confused with, mistaken for, in the perfective form with ba stating a settled condition.
Fourth line, “tsuyu mo arare no”: mo means even the dew, not only the moonlight, which is likened to hail.
Fifth line, “kokochi koso sure”: koso is answered by the perfective sure, emphasizing how it seems.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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Asajiwara hazue no tsuyu no tama goto ni hikari tsuranuku aki no yo no tsuki
- Next Poem
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Tsuki narade sashiiru kage no naki mama ni kururu ureshiki aki no yamazato