Hanasusuki tsuki no hikari ni magawamashi fukaki masuho no iro ni somezuba

花薄月の光にまがはまし
深きますほの色に染めずは

Roma-ji: Hanasusuki tsuki no hikari ni magawamashi fukaki masuho no iro ni somezuba
English Translation: Pampas grass in plume
would be lost amid the light
shining from the moon,
were it not that it is dyed
in the deep red of its ears.
Meaning: The plumed pampas grass would be lost in the moonlight, indistinguishable from it, were its plumes not dyed in their deep reddish hue.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 386

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Pampas grass before the moon"
This poem continues the topic of pampas grass before the moon. The plumes of the pampas grass, gleaming white, would be indistinguishable from the moonlight were they not dyed in the deep masuho hue, a reddish color. Setting the whiteness of the moonlight against the color of the plumes, the poem tells how a slight difference of color alone sets the grass apart from the moonlight.
Where the preceding poem made the pampas grass beckon the moon, this one dwells on telling the moonlight from the plumes by their color, treating the pairing of moon and pampas grass in terms of hue.

First line, “hanasusuki”: pampas grass in plume.
Second line, “tsuki no hikari ni”: with the moonlight, the object of magau.
Third line, “magawamashi”: magau is to be indistinguishable, and mashi expresses supposition contrary to fact, answering zuba in the last line, it would have been lost; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “fukaki masuho no”: masuho is a reddish hue, or pampas grass with long plumes, sung as masuho no susuki.
Fifth line, “iro ni somezuba”: were it not dyed that color, the condition for the third line's supposition given afterward by inversion.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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