Omoiidete mukashi o shinobu sode no ue ni arishi ni mo aranu tsuki zo yadoreru

思ひ出でて昔をしのぶ袖の上に
ありしにもあらぬ月ぞ宿れる

Roma-ji: Omoiidete mukashi o shinobu sode no ue ni arishi ni mo aranu tsuki zo yadoreru
English Translation: As I bring to mind
and long for days long past,
on my sleeve's wet cloth
the moon, not as it used to be,
has come to lodge itself.
Meaning: On my sleeve, wet as I recall and long for the past, the moon lodges—yet not as it once was.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 273

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "As a poem on the moon"
On the poet's sleeve, wet with tears as he recalls and longs for the past, the moonlight lodges, yet it looks different from before. The moon should be unchanged; that it seems otherwise is because his own heart and circumstances have changed, and the poem laments that passing.
This poem was included in the Shinchokusen Wakashū. The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on the moon" and places the poem in the miscellaneous section. Kamo no Mabuchi judged line 4 to be in the manner of later times.

Line 1, "remembering," is hypermetric.
Line 2 means "longing for the past."
Line 3, "upon my sleeve," is hypermetric. Taking up "the dew on my sleeves" in the preceding poem, 272, here the moon lodges in that dew.
Line 4 means "not as it used to be, changed from before."
Line 5 concludes the binding particle zo with ru, the attributive of the resultative ri, showing the moon reflected in the tears on the sleeve. In the preceding poem tears fell after many nights of brooding under the moon; here the moon lodges in those tears, linking the two by tears and moon.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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