Yukusue no tsuki o ba shirazu sugikitsuru aki mata kakaru kage wa nakariki

行く末の月をば知らず過ぎ来つる
秋またかかる影はなかりき

Roma-ji: Yukusue no tsuki o ba shirazu sugikitsuru aki mata kakaru kage wa nakariki
English Translation: What the moon will be
in the years to come, I know not;
in the autumns past
that I have lived, never yet
has there been a light like this.
Meaning: I cannot know what moons the years ahead may bring, but in all the autumns I have lived through, there has never yet been light like this.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 356

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the twentieth poem in the moon series. The poet cannot know what moons may be seen in the future, but in all the autumns he has lived through there has never been moonlight as splendid as tonight's. Comparing past and future, he praises tonight's moon as beyond compare.
Following the preceding poem's praise of the moon as too great for this world, this one praises tonight's moon by comparison with those of past autumns. Like 315, which says such a moon had never been seen, it expresses the wonder of a moon unlike any seen before.

First line, “yukusue no”: of the time to come.
Second line, “tsuki o ba shirazu”: I do not know about the moon, with o ba a strengthened form of o.
Third line, “sugikitsuru”: tsuru is the attributive of the perfective tsu, that I have passed through, modifying aki in the fourth line.
Fourth line, “aki mata kakaru”: mata with the negative means not yet, and kakaru such as this.
Fifth line, “kage wa nakariki”: ki is the past auxiliary, there was no light like this, closing with a look back at past autumns.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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