秋の夜の月の都のきりぎりす
鳴くは昔の影や恋しき
鳴くは昔の影や恋しき
- Roma-ji
-
Aki no yo no tsuki no miyako no kirigirisu naku wa mukashi no kage ya koishiki
- English Translation
-
On an autumn night,
in the moonlit capital,
O cricket there,
is it that you cry for longing
for the shadows of the past?
- Meaning
- Crickets of the moonlit capital on an autumn night—do you cry because you long for the vanished forms of long ago?
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 253
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Crickets"
The poet wonders whether the crickets crying in the moonlit capital on an autumn night cry because they long for the vanished forms of the old capital. Recalling the past in a city lit by the moon, he entrusts his nostalgia to the insects' voices.
The Ruijū text places this poem among "poems found in another manuscript and in printed editions."
Line 1 means "of an autumn night."
Line 2 means "of the moonlit capital," with an echo of the capital within the moon, recalling "the capital of the moon" in 226.
Line 3 names the crickets continuing from the two preceding poems, set here as if addressed.
Line 4 means "that they cry is for the past's."
Line 5: kage means a vanished form or image, ya is an interrogative binding particle, and the attributive koishiki concludes it. Taking up the crickets singing on a moonlit night in the preceding poem, 252, this poem hears their voices as voices of nostalgia.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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Asajiwara tsuyu shigeki niwa no kirigirisu aki fukaki yo no tsuki ni nakunari
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Kirigirisu naku yūgure no akikaze ni ware sae ayana mono zo kanashiki