classic waka stream

雲消えし秋の半ばの空よりも
月は今宵ぞ名に負へりける
Roma-ji

Kumo kieshi aki no nakaba no sora yori mo tsuki wa koyoi zo na ni oerikeru

English Translation
More than in the sky
of the middle of autumn,
when the clouds had cleared,
it is tonight that the moon
truly lives up to its name.
Meaning
More than in the cloudless sky of mid-autumn, it is tonight that the moon truly lives up to its fame.
Commentary
Autumn Poems 380

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The thirteenth night of the ninth month"
This poem continues the moon of the thirteenth night of the ninth month. More than the moon in the cloudless sky of mid-autumn, the fifteenth night of the eighth month, it is the moon of tonight, the thirteenth of the ninth month, that truly deserves the name of a famous moon. Comparing the fifteenth and the thirteenth, the poet praises the beauty of the thirteenth night's moon.
Aki no nakaba was used in 330 to mean the fifteenth night, so the series on the fifteenth night and this poem on the thirteenth answer each other. In a book that has praised the moon of the fifteenth again and again, here the moon of the thirteenth is praised as even finer.

First line, “kumo kieshi”: shi is the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, the clouds having vanished.
Second line, “aki no nakaba no”: of the very middle of autumn, the fifteenth night of the eighth month, the same words as the fourth line of 330.
Third line, “sora yori mo”: more than the moon in that sky, the point of comparison.
Fourth line, “tsuki wa koyoi zo”: tonight indeed the moon, with zo forming a kakari-musubi with keru in the last line.
Fifth line, “na ni oerikeru”: na ni ou means worthy of its name, famous; the attributive keru answers zo.
Author
Saigyō
Source
Sankashu
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