Kiyomigata tsuki sumu sora no ukigumo wa Fuji no takane no keburi narikeri

清見潟月澄む空の浮雲は
富士の高嶺の煙なりけり

Roma-ji: Kiyomigata tsuki sumu sora no ukigumo wa Fuji no takane no keburi narikeri
English Translation: At Kiyomi Bay,
in the sky where the moon shines clear,
the floating cloud there
is the smoke that rises up
from the lofty peak of Fuji.
Meaning: At Kiyomi Bay, the drifting cloud in the sky where the moon shines so clear turns out to be smoke rising from the high peak of Fuji.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 319

Headnote: "The moon by the sea"
The topic is the moon seen by the sea. At Kiyomi Bay in Suruga, what the poet took for a drifting cloud in the sky where the moon shines clear proves to be smoke rising from the high peak of Fuji. The grand scene of the seaside moon and the smoke of Fuji is gathered into a single poem.
The smoke rising from Mount Fuji had long been sung in waka, and here it is shown as something mistaken for a cloud in the moonlit sky. The moon at Kiyomi Bay is sung again in 324, so poems on the moon at famous places pile up.

First line, “Kiyomigata”: a stretch of coast in Suruga Province, around present-day Shimizu in Shizuoka, a famous place known along with the Kiyomi Barrier.
Second line, “tsuki sumu sora no”: of the sky where the moon shines clear.
Third line, “ukigumo wa”: the cloud drifting in the sky, singled out by wa, its true nature revealed in the last line.
Fourth line, “Fuji no takane no”: of the high peak of Mount Fuji.
Fifth line, “keburi narikeri”: keri expresses realization, the surprise of finding that the cloud was the smoke of Fuji.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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