Ama no hara furisakemireba tsuki kiyomi aki no yo itaku fukenikeru kana

天の原ふり放け見れば月清み
秋の夜いたく更けにけるかな

Roma-ji: Ama no hara furisakemireba tsuki kiyomi aki no yo itaku fukenikeru kana
English Translation: Across the heavens
as I raise my eyes to gaze,
the moon's so clear
that the autumn night has grown
so very late, how late!
Meaning: When I lift my eyes to the heavens, the moon is so clear that the autumn night has grown very late indeed.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 271

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "As a poem on the moon"
Looking up into the vast sky, the poet finds the moon so clear that while he gazed the autumn night has grown very late. In a broad, Man'yō-like cadence, he portrays how he forgets time, captivated by the moon's purity.
This poem was included in the Shinshūi Wakashū. Kamo no Mabuchi gave it a double circle.

Line 1, ama no hara, means the vast sky; it is the same opening as 200 and 229.
Line 2 means "when I look up far off." It shares lines 1 and 2 with 229; there geese crossed a clear moonlit night, while here the night grows late under the clear moon.
Line 3 is the same as line 1 of the preceding poem, 270, "since the moon is clear."
Line 4 is the same as line 2 of the preceding poem.
Line 5: keru kana is exclamatory, "how late it has grown." Taking up "has grown late" in the preceding poem, the two poems sing of the deepening moonlit night in nearly the same words, the preceding one turning to the plovers of the riverbank, this one to the vast sky.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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