Kusa no io ni hitori nagamete toshi mo henu tomo naki yado no aki no yo no tsuki

草の庵にひとり眺めて年も経ぬ
友なき宿の秋の夜の月

Roma-ji: Kusa no io ni hitori nagamete toshi mo henu tomo naki yado no aki no yo no tsuki
English Translation: In my grassy hut
gazing all alone, I've let
the years go by—
at my dwelling with no friends,
the moon of the autumn night.
Meaning: Gazing alone from my grass hut, I have let the years go by—the autumn moon over my friendless dwelling.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 274

Headnote: "Gazing at the moon in a quiet retreat"
Living alone in a grass hut and gazing at the moon by himself, the poet finds the years have slipped by, and sings of the autumn moon over a dwelling without friends. He portrays the solitude of a quiet retreat and the still years spent facing the moon alone.
The Ruijū and Teika texts differ in lines 1 and 4.

Line 1, "in my grass hut," is hypermetric, referring to a rough hut thatched with grass.
Line 2 means "gazing alone, lost in thought."
Line 3: nu marks completion, "the years too have passed," and the poem pauses here.
Line 4, "of a dwelling without friends," presents the "quiet retreat" of the topic.
Line 5 ends on a noun and presents the "gazing at the moon" of the topic; it is the same last line as 202. Against the moon of a single night in the preceding poems, this one sings of a moon gazed at over years, viewing the moon on the scales of one night and of many years.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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