Ama no hara onaji iwato o izuredomo hikari kotonaru aki no yo no tsuki

天の原同じ岩戸を出づれども
光異なる秋の夜の月

Roma-ji: Ama no hara onaji iwato o izuredomo hikari kotonaru aki no yo no tsuki
English Translation: Through the plain of heaven,
from the same gate in the rock
though it rises forth,
how its light is different,
the moon of the autumn night.
Meaning: Though it rises from the same rock gate in the wide heavens, how different is the light of the autumn night's moon.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 377

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed many poems on the moon"
This is the forty-first poem in the moon series. In every season the moon comes out from the same rock gate of the heavens, yet the autumn moon alone shines with a light wholly unlike that of other seasons. Using the myth of the rock gate, the poem praises the autumn moon as special though it is the same moon.
Iwato recalls the Rock Cave of Heaven in which the sun goddess Amaterasu hid, and serves here as a gate in the sky. Like 334, which says the name of autumn belongs to one night, it sings of how the autumn moon is special though it shines in the same sky.

First line, “ama no hara”: the broad plain of the heavens.
Second line, “onaji iwato o”: iwato is a rock door, a gate of heaven, recalling the Rock Cave; the moon always comes out through the same gate.
Third line, “izuredomo”: though it comes out, the concessive domo leading to the lower verse.
Fourth line, “hikari kotonaru”: its light wholly unlike that of other seasons.
Fifth line, “aki no yo no tsuki”: ending on a noun, the autumn moon shining with special light.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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