Aki no yo no isayou yama no ha nomi ka wa kumo no taema mo matare ya wa senu

秋の夜のいさよふ山の端のみかは
雲の絶え間も待たれやはせぬ

Roma-ji: Aki no yo no isayou yama no ha nomi ka wa kumo no taema mo matare ya wa senu
English Translation: On the autumn night,
is it just the mountain rim
where it lingers late?
How could I not wait as well
for the breaks between the clouds?
Meaning: On an autumn night, is it only the mountain rim where the moon lingers that I wait upon? How could I not wait as well for a break in the clouds?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 384

Headnote: "Waiting for the moon between the clouds"
The topic is waiting for the moon to appear through a gap in the clouds. On an autumn night the poet waits not only for the hesitant moon to come over the mountain rim; he cannot help waiting as well for it to show between the clouds. His waiting heart is turned toward two places, the mountain rim and the gaps in the clouds.
Like the preceding poem, which waits twice over, for the moonrise and for the clouds to clear, this one too waits for both the mountain rim and the breaks in the clouds, stressing the feeling with a doubled rhetorical question.

First line, “aki no yo no”: on an autumn night.
Second line, “isayou yama no”: isayou is to hesitate, of the mountain where the moon hesitates to rise.
Third line, “ha nomi ka wa”: a hypermetric line of six syllables, is it only the rim that I wait for; ka wa is rhetorical.
Fourth line, “kumo no taema mo”: the breaks in the clouds as well.
Fifth line, “matare ya wa senu”: re is spontaneous and ya wa a rhetorical particle, how could I not wait for them, closing with emphasis.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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