Tsuki ni koso mukashi no koto wa oboekere ware o wasururu hito ni misebaya - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

月にこそ昔のことは覚えけれ
我を忘るる人に見せばや

Roma-ji: Tsuki ni koso mukashi no koto wa oboekere ware o wasururu hito ni misebaya
English Translation: It is by the moon
that the past comes back to me —
how I wish that I
could show it to the one who
has forgotten all of me
Meaning: It is the moon that brings back the past to me; how I wish I could show it to the one who has forgotten me.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 305

The moon brings the past back to mind, the poet says, and wishes to show it to the one who has forgotten, to make them remember too. Taking the moon as a token of memory, the poem carries resentment and lingering attachment toward one whose heart has changed.
Poem 308 of this book likewise says that only the moon remains as of old, so that poems recalling the past through the moon echo one another.

The first line, "tsuki ni koso," singles out with "koso": it is by the moon.
The second line, "mukashi no koto wa," sets the past as the topic with "wa."
The third line, "oboekere," closes "koso" with the perfective exclamatory "keri," a kakari-musubi meaning it comes back to me, with a break after the third line.
The fourth line, "ware o wasururu," refers to the one who has forgotten me.
The final line, "hito ni misebaya," ends with the self-directed wish "baya": I would like to show it.
Source: Shika Wakashu
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