Kazoenedo koyoi no tsuki no keshiki nite aki no nakaba o sora ni shiru kana

数へねど今宵の月のけしきにて
秋の半ばを空に知るかな

Roma-ji: Kazoenedo koyoi no tsuki no keshiki nite aki no nakaba o sora ni shiru kana
English Translation: Though I count no days,
by the look the moon has worn
on this very night,
autumn's halfway point I know
from the sky above, it seems.
Meaning: Without counting the days, I know from the look of tonight's moon that it is the very middle of autumn; the sky itself tells me so.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 330

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The fifteenth night of the eighth month"
This is the second poem in the series on the fifteenth night. Without counting the days of the calendar, one can tell from the full look of tonight's moon that it is the very middle of autumn. Under the old calendar autumn ran from the seventh month to the ninth, and the fifteenth of the eighth fell at its center, a day announced by the full moon.
Where the preceding poem knew the fifteenth by the moonrise, this one knows the middle of autumn from the moon's form. Aki no nakaba is also used in 380, the poem on the thirteenth night of the ninth month, to refer to the fifteenth night.

First line, “kazoenedo”: nedo joins the perfective form of the negative zu with do, though I do not count the days.
Second line, “koyoi no tsuki no”: of tonight's moon, the moon of the fifteenth.
Third line, “keshiki nite”: by its look.
Fourth line, “aki no nakaba o”: the exact middle of autumn, the fifteenth of the eighth month.
Fifth line, “sora ni shiru kana”: sora ni means by the look of the sky, closing with kana.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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