Sugiyarade tsuki chikaku yuku ukigumo no tadayou miru wa wabishikarikeri

過ぎやらで月近く行く浮雲の
ただよふ見るはわびしかりけり

Roma-ji: Sugiyarade tsuki chikaku yuku ukigumo no tadayou miru wa wabishikarikeri
English Translation: Not passing along,
drifting near the moon it goes,
the floating cloud there:
how it pains me to look on
as it lingers wandering.
Meaning: How it pains me to watch the drifting cloud linger near the moon, never quite passing on, floating there.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 372

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the thirty-sixth poem in the moon series. It is painful to watch a drifting cloud that does not pass on but lingers near the moon, floating there. It portrays a heart fretting at a cloud that seems about to hide the moon.
Against hayaku suguru wa ureshikarikeri in the preceding poem, this one calls the cloud that drifts sugiyarade wabishikarikeri, so the passing cloud and the lingering cloud, gladness and pain, form a pair across the two poems. The next poem also sings of clouds that will not leave the moon.

First line, “sugiyarade”: yaru means to do completely, and with the negative de, without passing on; it pairs with hayaku suguru in the preceding poem.
Second line, “tsuki chikaku yuku”: moving near the moon.
Third line, “ukigumo no”: of the cloud floating in the sky.
Fourth line, “tadayou miru wa”: to see it drifting.
Fifth line, “wabishikarikeri”: wabishi means painful or dreary, closing in a pair with ureshikarikeri at the end of the preceding poem.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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Next Poem: Itoedomo sasuga ni kumo no uchichirite tsuki no atari o hanarezarikeri