Shiba no io wa sumiuki koto mo aramashi o tomonau tsuki no kage nakariseba

柴の庵は住み憂きこともあらましを
伴ふ月の影なかりせば

Roma-ji: Shiba no io wa sumiuki koto mo aramashi o tomonau tsuki no kage nakariseba
English Translation: The brushwood hut would
have been a hard place to live,
had there not been there
the light of the moon to stay
by my side and keep me company.
Meaning: The brushwood hut would have been a hard place to live, had there been no moonlight to keep me company.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 950

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Had there been no moonlight to keep me company, the brushwood hut would have been hard to live in, the poet says, singing, after the two poems before, of the moon as the companion that sustains life in a mountain hut.

First line, “shiba no io wa”: the humble brushwood hut; a line of six syllables, a word also sung in 725.
Second line, “sumiuki koto mo”: hardship in living there.
Third line, “aramashi o”: mashi is counterfactual, there would have been; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “tomonau tsuki no”: of the moon that keeps me company, akin to the friend of the two poems before.
Fifth line, “kage nakariseba”: seba is counterfactual, had there been no light, inverted to follow the third line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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