Izuku tote aware narazu wa nakeredomo aretaru yado zo tsuki wa sabishiki

いづくとてあはれならずはなけれども
荒れたる宿ぞ月はさびしき

Roma-ji: Izuku tote aware narazu wa nakeredomo aretaru yado zo tsuki wa sabishiki
English Translation: Though there is no place
where it is not touching, still,
wherever it be,
in a dwelling gone to ruin
is the moon most lonely seen.
Meaning: There is no place where the moon is not moving, wherever it may be, yet it is in a ruined dwelling that the moon looks loneliest.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 340

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the fourth poem in the moon series. There is no place where moonlight is not moving, yet the moon seen from a ruined house is loneliest of all and pierces the heart most. In the pairing of a ruined dwelling with the moon the poet sees loneliness at its height.
The next poem also sings of the moon over a ruined garden, so two poems on the moon at a ruined dwelling follow one another. Where this one states in general the loneliness of the moon at a ruined house, the next thinks of the people who once lived there.

First line, “izuku tote”: just because it is somewhere, wherever it may be.
Second line, “aware narazu wa”: that it is not moving.
Third line, “nakeredomo”: though there is none, the upper verse granting that the moon is moving everywhere before turning to the lower verse.
Fourth line, “aretaru yado zo”: in a ruined dwelling indeed, with zo forming a kakari-musubi with sabishiki in the last line.
Fifth line, “tsuki wa sabishiki”: the attributive answering zo, stressing that the moon is loneliest there.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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