西へ行くしるべと頼む月影の
そらだのめこそかひなかりけれ
そらだのめこそかひなかりけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Nishi e yuku shirube to tanomu tsukikage no soradanome koso kai nakarikere
- English Translation
-
The moonlight I trust
to guide me on my way west,
a promise made from
the empty sky, I find it
came to nothing in the end.
- Meaning
- The moonlight that I trusted to guide me to the west only raised my hopes in vain from the sky, and came to nothing.
- Commentary
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Miscellaneous Poems 854
Headnote: "When the Lady Horikawa was living at Ninnaji, I had said I would call, but other matters kept me and time passed; in the season of the moon, hearing that I had passed by her gate, she sent this"
When Taikenmon'in no Horikawa lived at Ninnaji, Saigyō said he would visit, but other matters intervened and time went by. In the season of the moon, hearing that he had passed her gate, Horikawa sent this. The moonlight I trusted as my guide to the Western Paradise, that is, Saigyō, only raised my hopes in vain from the sky, she writes, reproaching him for not calling.
First line, “nishi e yuku”: going to the Western Paradise.
Second line, “shirube to tanomu”: relied on as a guide.
Third line, “tsukikage no”: of the moonlight, standing for Saigyō.
Fourth line, “soradanome koso”: sora is a pivot word joining the sky where the moon is and soradanome, false hopes; koso is a binding particle.
Fifth line, “kai nakarikere”: the perfective closing koso; it came to nothing.
- Author
- Taikenmon-in no Horikawa
- Source
- Sankashu
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