Tsukikage no katabuku yama o nagametsutsu oshimu shirushi ya ariake no sora

月影の傾く山を眺めつつ
惜しむしるしや有明の空

Roma-ji: Tsukikage no katabuku yama o nagametsutsu oshimu shirushi ya ariake no sora
English Translation: Gazing on and on
at the hills where the moonlight
leans toward its setting,
did my grieving bear some fruit?
There it lingers in the dawn sky.
Meaning: I went on gazing at the hills toward which the moon was sinking; did my reluctance to let it go have some effect? It lingers still in the sky at dawn.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 354

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the eighteenth poem in the moon series. The poet went on gazing as the moon sank toward the western hills, begging it not to set; did his grieving have some effect? Even as the night ends, the moon remains in the dawn sky. He sees the moon as lingering because his reluctance reached it.
The wish of 314, holding the moon back with shibashi na iriso, seems here to have been granted. Within the flow of poems grieving over the setting moon, the series moves on to the scene of the moon lingering at dawn.

First line, “tsukikage no”: tsukikage is moonlight, or the moon itself.
Second line, “katabuku yama o”: the hills toward which the moon sinks westward.
Third line, “nagametsutsu”: tsutsu shows continuation, gazing on and on.
Fourth line, “oshimu shirushi ya”: shirushi is effect or result, and ya a question particle, did my grieving have an effect.
Fifth line, “ariake no sora”: ending on a noun, the sky where the moon remains after daybreak, hinting at the answer to the fourth line's question.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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