眺むれば衣手霞む久方の
月の都の春の夜の空
月の都の春の夜の空
- Roma-ji
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Nagamureba koromode kasumu hisakata no tsuki no miyako no haru no yo no sora
- English Translation
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As I gaze in thought,
even my sleeves are veiled in haze;
far as heaven's reach,
the capital of the moon—
the sky of a spring night.
- Meaning
- As I gaze lost in thought, even my sleeves seem veiled in haze—the spring night sky where the capital of the moon lies.
- Commentary
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Spring Poems 98
Headnote: "The spring moon"
As the poet gazes lost in thought at the spring night sky, even his sleeves seem blurred by the hazy moonlight. Imagining the heavenly capital of the moon, he expresses the dim beauty of a spring night in a dreamlike way.
Line 1: nagamu means to gaze while lost in thought.
Line 2 means "even my sleeves are hazy," and the poem pauses here; the dimness of the moonlight is felt as haze reaching his own sleeves.
Line 3, hisakata no, is a pillow word for "moon"; in poem 1 it modified "heaven."
Line 4: tsuki no miyako is the capital said to lie within the moon, evoking a celestial world.
Line 5 ends on a noun, the same closing as 101. Where the preceding poem, 97, sang of a moon clouded by earthly cherries, here the poet's thoughts rise to the capital of the moon.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Kaze sawagu ochi no toyama ni kumo harete sakura ni kumoru haru no yo no tsuki
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Furusato wa mishi goto mo arazu arenikeru kage zo mukashi no haru no yo no tsuki