Yukue naku tsuki ni kokoro no sumisumite hate wa ika ni ka naran to suran

行方なく月に心の澄み澄みて
果てはいかにかならんとすらん

Roma-ji: Yukue naku tsuki ni kokoro no sumisumite hate wa ika ni ka naran to suran
English Translation: Endlessly it seems,
by the moon my heart grows clear,
clearer, clearer still:
what at last, I wonder, will
come of it, what will it be?
Meaning: Without end, my heart grows clearer and clearer in the moonlight; what, I wonder, will it become in the end?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 353

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the seventeenth poem in the moon series. Gazing at the moon, the poet feels his heart grow clearer and clearer without end, with no place at which to stop; what will become of it in the end if it goes on like this? He feels unease and wonder at a heart growing boundlessly pure before the moon, its destination unknown even to himself.
Like 346, with its heart that grows clear before the moon, this poem sings of a heart cleared by the moon, but here it asks where that clearing will finally lead.

First line, “yukue naku”: with nowhere to arrive, endlessly.
Second line, “tsuki ni kokoro no”: by the moon, my heart.
Third line, “sumisumite”: growing ever clearer, the repeated word stressing a heart becoming boundlessly clear.
Fourth line, “hate wa ika ni ka”: in the end, how; ka is a question particle answering ran in the last line.
Fifth line, “naran to suran”: ran is present conjecture, what is it about to become, asking where his own heart is going.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
Prev Poem: Nagamureba hoka no kage koso yukashikere kawaraji mono o aki no yo no tsuki
Next Poem: Tsukikage no katabuku yama o nagametsutsu oshimu shirushi ya ariake no sora