故郷は見しごともあらず荒れにける
影ぞ昔の春の夜の月
影ぞ昔の春の夜の月
- Roma-ji
-
Furusato wa mishi goto mo arazu arenikeru kage zo mukashi no haru no yo no tsuki
- English Translation
-
The old homestead lies
not at all as once I saw it,
fallen into ruin—
only the light is as of old,
the moon of the spring night.
- Meaning
- My old home is nothing like what I once knew; it has fallen into ruin—only the light of the spring night's moon remains as it was long ago.
- Commentary
-
Spring Poems 99
Headnote: "The spring moon over the old home"
The poet says that his old home has changed beyond recognition and fallen to ruin, but the light of the moon on a spring night remains as it was. It is a nostalgic poem contrasting the changing human world with unchanging nature.
In the Ruijū text the headnote reads "Composed on the spring moon over the old home," and the third line is arenikeri. Ariwara no Narihira's Kokinshū poem doubts whether the moon and spring are as before, though he alone is unchanged; this poem reverses the idea, saying that only the moon is as of old.
Line 1 takes up the topic's "old home."
Line 2 is hypermetric at eight syllables, meaning "not as I once saw it."
Line 3 trails off on the attributive form, holding grief at the ruin as lingering feeling, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4: kage is moonlight; zo stresses that only the light is as of old.
Line 5 ends on a noun, the same closing as 97. It uses with the moon the same structure as 30, which contrasted a ruined house with plum blossoms smelling as of old.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
-
Nagamureba koromode kasumu hisakata no tsuki no miyako no haru no yo no sora
- Next Poem
-
Tare sumite tare nagamuramu furusato no yoshino no miya no haru no yo no tsuki