Tsuki mireba kage naku kumo ni tsutsumarete koyoi narazuba yami ni miemashi

月見れば影なく雲につつまれて
今宵ならずば闇に見えまし

Roma-ji: Tsuki mireba kage naku kumo ni tsutsumarete koyoi narazuba yami ni miemashi
English Translation: When I seek the moon,
wrapped in clouds that let no light
show through anywhere,
were it not this very night,
it would seem but dark to me.
Meaning: When I look for the moon, it is wrapped in clouds with no light showing; were it not this night of all nights, it would have looked to me like nothing but darkness.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 336

Headnote: "On the fifteenth night when it was cloudy"
The headnote tells us this poem is about a fifteenth night covered by cloud. Looking up to see the harvest moon, the poet finds it wrapped in clouds so thick that no light shows; had he not known it was the fifteenth, it would have seemed nothing but a dark night. He pictures the unseen moon through the knowledge that this is the fifteenth night.
Where the preceding series praised the bright moon of the fifteenth, this poem sings of the fifteenth clouded over, closing the series on the harvest moon from the opposite side.

First line, “tsuki mireba”: when I look for the moon.
Second line, “kage naku kumo ni”: kage is light, with no light, by the clouds.
Third line, “tsutsumarete”: wrapped completely in cloud.
Fourth line, “koyoi narazuba”: if tonight were not the fifteenth, a supposition against fact answering mashi in the last line.
Fifth line, “yami ni miemashi”: mashi expresses supposition contrary to fact, it would have looked like mere darkness.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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