Nagameyaru noki no shinobu no tsuyu no ma ni itaku na fukeso aki no yo no tsuki

眺めやる軒のしのぶの露の間に
いたくな更けそ秋の夜の月

Roma-ji: Nagameyaru noki no shinobu no tsuyu no ma ni itaku na fukeso aki no yo no tsuki
English Translation: As I gaze far off,
from the fern upon the eaves,
for the time dew lasts,
do not let the night grow late,
O moon of the autumn night.
Meaning: As I gaze out at the fern on the eaves, in a span as brief as the dew—O moon of the autumn night, do not let the night grow so late.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 202

Headnote: "Composed on the night of the fourteenth day of the seventh month, when I was in the gallery of Shōchōju-in and the moonlight shone in"
On the night of the fourteenth day of the seventh month, the poet was in a gallery of Shōchōju-in in Kamakura when the moonlight shone in. Linking the fleeting dew on the shinobu fern of the eaves, he calls on the autumn moon not to let the night grow late in so brief a span. Shōchōju-in was a temple Minamoto no Yoritomo founded to pray for his father Yoshitomo, and since this night was the eve of the Obon festival, the poet may have been gazing at the moon while remembering the dead.
The Ruijū text's headnote differs slightly. According to the source's note, line 4 read differently in the original and the editor emended it following another manuscript; this edition follows that emendation. In the source text consulted, a character in line 4 is missing and has been supplied from the Teika text's itaku na fukeso.

Line 1, nagameyaru, means gazing far off, showing the poet looking at the moon from the gallery.
Line 2: shinobu, the hare's-foot fern that grows on eaves, carries the overtone of shinobu, "to remember with longing."
Line 3 turns from the dew on the fern to "for a time as brief as dew."
Line 4 uses the na ... so construction of prohibition, calling on the moon not to let the night grow so late, and the poem pauses here.
Line 5 ends on a noun, naming last the one addressed. Against the moon that sank in 201, here the poet begs the moon not to let the night run on, so the setting moon and the heart that would hold it back form a pair.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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