Uchitsuke ni mata kon aki no koyoi made tsuki yue oshiku naru inochi kana

うちつけにまた来ん秋の今宵まで
月ゆゑ惜しくなる命かな

Roma-ji: Uchitsuke ni mata kon aki no koyoi made tsuki yue oshiku naru inochi kana
English Translation: All of a sudden,
till this night in autumn comes
around again,
for the moon's sake I now hold
this life of mine to be dear.
Meaning: All of a sudden, for the sake of the moon, my life has grown dear to me, so that I long to live until this night comes round again next autumn.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 333

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The fifteenth night of the eighth month"
This is the fifth poem in the series on the fifteenth night. Gazing at tonight's harvest moon, the poet suddenly finds his life precious for the moon's sake, wishing to live on until this night returns next autumn to see it again. The poem tells how the beauty of the moon awakens a clinging to life.
Where the poems before praised the moon of the fifteenth night itself, this one turns to the life of the one who gazes at it. The feeling that devotion to the moon makes life dear also echoes 403, in which the poet thinks he would not wish to die.

First line, “uchitsuke ni”: suddenly, all at once.
Second line, “mata kon aki no”: n is the attributive of the conjectural mu, of the autumn that will come again.
Third line, “koyoi made”: until this night, the fifteenth night of next year.
Fourth line, “tsuki yue oshiku”: yue means because of, for the moon's sake life becomes dear.
Fifth line, “naru inochi kana”: kana is exclamatory, closing on feeling for his own life grown precious.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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