行きめぐりまたも来て見む故郷の
宿守る月は我を忘るな
宿守る月は我を忘るな
- Roma-ji
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Yukimeguri mata mo kite mimu furusato no yado moru tsuki wa ware o wasuru na
- English Translation
-
Wandering about,
I will come again to see—
O moon who guards
the house of my old village,
do not, please, forget me.
- Meaning
- After wandering far, I will come again to see you—O moon who keeps watch over the house in my old village, do not forget me.
- Commentary
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Autumn Poems 276
Headnote: "Moon at an old village"
Resolving to wander abroad and come back to see it again someday, the poet calls on the moon that shines as if guarding a house in his old village not to forget him. Promising to return, he shows affection for the moon watching over a house no longer lived in.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on the moon" and places the poem in the miscellaneous section. In the source text consulted, a character in line 2 is missing, and it has been read as mata mo kite mimu from the syllable count and the flow of the words.
Line 1 means "wandering here and there."
Line 2: mu expresses intention, "I will come again to see," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3, furusato, is a village long inhabited and now in decline.
Line 4, "the moon that guards the house," likens the moon to a house-keeper. The moon that came to dwell in the masterless house of the preceding poem, 275, is sung here as a moon that keeps watch over the house.
Line 5: na is a particle of prohibition, calling on the moon, "do not forget me."
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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