水なくて氷ぞしたる勝間田の
池あらたむる秋の夜の月
池あらたむる秋の夜の月
- Roma-ji
-
Mizu nakute kōri zo shitaru Katsumata no ike aratamuru aki no yo no tsuki
- English Translation
-
Though no water's there,
ice has formed, or so it seems,
at Katsumata,
the pond made anew by it,
the moon of the autumn night.
- Meaning
- Though there is no water, ice seems to have formed: the autumn night's moon has made Katsumata Pond anew.
- Commentary
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Autumn Poems 323
Headnote: "Moonlight resembling a pond"
The topic is moonlight that looks like a pond. On Katsumata Pond, which has no water, the autumn moonlight spreads so that ice seems to have formed; the moonlight has remade the pond anew. Likening the moonlight to ice, the poem shows the moon's power to turn a waterless pond into a pond of ice.
Mizu nakute seems to draw on the tradition that Katsumata Pond had no water. Like 317, in which the moonlight is mistaken for snow, it likens moonlight to a winter scene.
First line, “mizu nakute”: though there is no water, the dryness of Katsumata Pond.
Second line, “kōri zo shitaru”: zo is answered by taru, the attributive of the continuative tari, ice has formed, likening the moonlight to ice; the poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, “Katsumata no”: pointing to Katsumata Pond, a famous place in Yamato Province.
Fourth line, “ike aratamuru”: aratamu is to renew or remake, the moonlight transforming the look of the pond.
Fifth line, “aki no yo no tsuki”: ending on a noun, the last line repeated through the moon poems of this book.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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