Arishi ni mo arazu nariyuku yo no naka ni kawaranu mono wa aki no yo no tsuki - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ありしにもあらずなりゆく世の中に
変はらぬものは秋の夜の月

Roma-ji: Arishi ni mo arazu nariyuku yo no naka ni kawaranu mono wa aki no yo no tsuki
English Translation: Unlike what it was,
so the world keeps on becoming,
and in this world
the one thing that does not change
is the moon on autumn nights
Meaning: In a world that keeps changing until it is nothing like what it once was, the one thing that does not change is the moon on autumn nights.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 98

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The author is listed here as an unnumbered poet, but the Shikashu attributes the poem to the Tendai Abbot Myōkai.
The poem contrasts a world that never stops changing with the autumn moon that shines unchanged, gazing on the moon as the one constant in an impermanent world. As if answering the preceding poem's uncertainty about next autumn, it presents the unchanging moon.

The first line, "arishi ni mo," means "from what it once was," pointing to the past.
The second line, "arazu nariyuku," means "becoming no longer so," the changing of the world.
The third line, "yo no naka ni," refers to this impermanent world.
The fourth line, "kawaranu mono wa," means "what does not change," contrasting with nariyuku in the second line.
The last line, "aki no yo no tsuki," ends on a noun, naming the constant set against a changing world. The phrase recurs in the poems that follow, and 100 in this book has the same last line.
Source: Shika Wakashu
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