Tsuki sayuru Akashi no seto ni kaze fukeba kōri no ue ni tatamu shiranami

月冴ゆる明石の瀬戸に風吹けば
氷の上に畳む白波

Roma-ji: Tsuki sayuru Akashi no seto ni kaze fukeba kōri no ue ni tatamu shiranami
English Translation: At Akashi Strait,
where the moonlight shines so cold,
when the wind blows strong,
over what seems ice there pile
fold on fold the cresting waves.
Meaning: When the wind blows over Akashi Strait, where the moonlight shines so cold and clear, white waves pile up fold upon fold over a sea that looks like ice.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 376

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the fortieth poem in the moon series. When the wind blows across Akashi Strait, where the moonlight shines cold and clear, white waves pile up fold on fold over a sea that, lit by the moon, looks like ice. Laying the whiteness of the waves over the whiteness of the moonlight, the poem paints a cold, clear night seascape that recalls winter.
Like 326, which likened the waves at Naniwa Bay in moonlight to a sheet of ice, this poem also sees the sea as ice and adds the white waves rising over it. The moon at Akashi was also sung in 325.

First line, “tsuki sayuru”: saeru is to be cold and clear, the moonlight cold and pure.
Second line, “Akashi no seto ni”: seto is a narrow channel of sea between lands, here the strait at Akashi in Harima.
Third line, “kaze fukeba”: when the wind blows, the perfective form with ba.
Fourth line, “kōri no ue ni”: over the sea that looks like ice in the moonlight.
Fifth line, “tatamu shiranami”: ending on a noun; tatamu is to pile in folds, the white waves rising one upon another.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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