Mishi mama ni sugata mo kage mo kawaraneba tsuki zo miyako no katami narikeru

見しままに姿も影も変はらねば
月ぞ都の形見なりける

Roma-ji: Mishi mama ni sugata mo kage mo kawaraneba tsuki zo miyako no katami narikeru
English Translation: Just as I once saw,
both its form and its light too
have not changed at all;
so it is the moon that is
my keepsake of the capital.
Meaning: Its shape and its light are unchanged from when I saw it there, so it is the moon that serves as my keepsake of the capital.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 412

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "At a lodging on a journey"
This poem continues the occasion of the lodging on a journey. The moon seen on the road has not changed at all in form or light from the moon the poet watched in the capital, so the moon is the keepsake by which he remembers the distant capital. For the traveller, the unchanging moon gives a sense of connection with the capital.
Where the preceding poem said the moon is most moving on a journey, this one lays the moon of the capital over the moon of the road. Echoing the moon's constancy in 350, it takes the fact that the same moon can be seen in a different place as a keepsake of the capital.

First line, “mishi mama ni”: just as when I saw it in the capital; shi is the attributive of the past auxiliary ki.
Second line, “sugata mo kage mo”: both the moon's form and its light.
Third line, “kawaraneba”: since they have not changed, the perfective form with ba.
Fourth line, “tsuki zo miyako no”: the moon indeed, of the capital, with zo forming a kakari-musubi with keru in the last line.
Fifth line, “katami narikeru”: katami is a keepsake that recalls a distant person or place; the attributive keru answers zo.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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