Kage usumi matsu no taema o morikitsutsu kokorobososhi ya mikazuki no sora

影薄み松の絶え間を漏り来つつ
心細しや三日月の空

Roma-ji: Kage usumi matsu no taema o morikitsutsu kokorobososhi ya mikazuki no sora
English Translation: Its light is so faint,
slipping through the gaps between
the branches of the pines—
how forlorn it makes me feel,
the sky with the crescent moon.
Meaning: Its light so faint, slipping again and again through the gaps in the pines, how forlorn it is, the sky with its crescent moon.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1151

Headnote: "Seeing the moonlight glimmer faintly through a break in the pines"
Composed on seeing faint moonlight glimmer through a gap in the pines. Its light is so weak that it only slips through the breaks in the pines, and how forlorn the crescent-moon sky makes him feel.
The thin pale light of the crescent is drawn as leaking through the gaps in the pine branches, its frailty expressed as kokorobososhi; the thinness of the light is laid over the forlornness of the heart.

First line, “kage usumi”: mi expresses cause, "since its light is faint."
Second line, “matsu no taema o”: through the breaks between the pine branches.
Third line, “morikitsutsu”: tsutsu shows repetition, "slipping through again and again."
Fourth line, “kokorobososhi ya”: ya is exclamatory, "how forlorn."
Fifth line, “mikazuki no sora”: ending on a noun, the thin pale moonlight lingers.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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