蓬分けて荒れたる庭の月見れば
昔住みけん人ぞ恋しき
昔住みけん人ぞ恋しき
- Roma-ji
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Yomogi wakete aretaru niwa no tsuki mireba mukashi sumiken hito zo koishiki
- English Translation
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Parting the mugwort,
when I look upon the moon
in the ruined garden,
how I long for those who lived
here in years now long gone by.
- Meaning
- When I push my way through the mugwort and look at the moon over the ruined garden, I long for those who must have lived here long ago.
- Commentary
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Autumn Poems 341
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the fifth poem in the moon series. Pushing through thick mugwort to gaze at the moon shining over a ruined garden, the poet longs for the people who must once have lived there. The moon shining unchanged on the ruined garden calls up thoughts of the past and those who dwelt there.
Taking up aretaru yado in the preceding poem, it sings of the moon over aretaru niwa, deepening the feeling from the loneliness of a ruined dwelling to longing for its former inhabitants.
First line, “yomogi wakete”: a hypermetric line of six syllables, pushing through the thick mugwort; a garden full of mugwort is an emblem of a ruined house.
Second line, “aretaru niwa no”: using the same word as aretaru yado in the preceding poem, of the ruined garden.
Third line, “tsuki mireba”: when I see the moon, the perfective form with ba.
Fourth line, “mukashi sumiken”: ken is the attributive of the past conjectural kemu, who must have lived here long ago.
Fifth line, “hito zo koishiki”: zo is answered by the attributive koishiki, stressing the longing for the people of the past.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
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Izuku tote aware narazu wa nakeredomo aretaru yado zo tsuki wa sabishiki
- Next Poem
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Mi ni shimite aware shirasuru kaze yori mo tsuki ni zo aki no iro wa arikeru