波の音を心にかけて明かすかな
苫漏る月の影を友にて
苫漏る月の影を友にて
- Roma-ji
-
Nami no oto o kokoro ni kakete akasu kana toma moru tsuki no kage o tomo nite
- English Translation
-
To the sound of waves
I keep listening with my heart
as I pass the night,
taking for my company
moonlight leaking through the thatch.
- Meaning
- I pass the night with my heart on the sound of the waves, my only companion the moonlight leaking through the rush-mat roof.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 414
Headnote: "On a pilgrimage to the First Shrine of Aki for a purpose of my own, I was held up by the wind for some days at a place called the bay of Takatomi, and seeing the moonlight leak into my hut thatched with rush mats"
The headnote tells us that on the way to Itsukushima, the First Shrine of Aki Province, which the poet visited with a purpose in mind, he was held up for days by the wind at a place called the bay of Takatomi, and composed this on seeing moonlight leak into his hut thatched with rush mats. He passes the night without sleep, his heart on the sound of the waves breaking on the shore, taking the moonlight leaking through the mats as his friend.
Amid the loneliness of being stranded on a journey, the poet takes only the moonlight for a friend. It echoes the preceding poem's moon that lodges in the traveller's hut each night, and here the moonlight appears as a travelling companion. The next poem sings of the moon after he has reached Itsukushima.
First line, “nami no oto o”: a hypermetric line of six syllables, the sound of the waves breaking on the shore.
Second line, “kokoro ni kakete”: keeping it in mind, listening on to the sound of the waves.
Third line, “akasu kana”: I pass the night, with kana as exclamation; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “toma moru tsuki no”: toma are mats of sedge or reed used to roof a hut, the moon leaking through such a roof.
Fifth line, “kage o tomo nite”: taking the moonlight as a friend, giving afterward by inversion how the night was spent.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
- Prev Poem
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Tsuki wa nao yonayona goto ni yadoru beshi waga musubioku kusa no iori ni
- Next Poem
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Morotomo ni tabi naru sora ni tsuki mo idete sume ya kage no aware naruran