有明の月のころにしなりぬれば
秋は夜なき心地こそすれ
秋は夜なき心地こそすれ
- Roma-ji
-
Ariake no tsuki no koro ni shi narinureba aki wa yoru naki kokochi koso sure
- English Translation
-
Since the time has come
when the moon remains on high
even into dawn,
autumn seems to have no night,
or so at least it feels to me.
- Meaning
- Now that it is the season when the moon lingers into dawn, autumn seems to me to have no night at all.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 360
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the twenty-fourth poem in the moon series. When the season comes in which the moon stays in the sky even after dawn, its light never fails all night long, and autumn feels as if it had no darkness of night at all. The autumn night, with the moon in the sky from evening to dawn, is praised by saying there is no night.
Following the two poems before, which took moonlight for day, this one goes further and says that in autumn there is no night at all. It also echoes the moon in the dawn sky of 354.
First line, “ariake no”: of the dawn moon still in the sky after daybreak, the moon from the sixteenth day of the month onward.
Second line, “tsuki no koro ni shi”: shi is emphatic, at the time of that moon.
Third line, “narinureba”: since it has become so, the perfective form with ba.
Fourth line, “aki wa yoru naki”: in autumn there is no night, exaggerating how the moonlight lasts all night.
Fifth line, “kokochi koso sure”: koso is answered by the perfective sure, stressing how it feels.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ama no hara Asahiyama yori izureba ya tsuki no hikari no hiru ni magaemite
- Next Poem
-
Nakanaka ni tokidoki kumo no kakaru koso tsuki o motenasu kazari narikere