Ōhara ya oboro no shimizu sato tōmi hito koso kumane tsuki wa sumikeri

大原やおぼろの清水里遠み
人こそ汲まね月はすみけり

Roma-ji: Ōhara ya oboro no shimizu sato tōmi hito koso kumane tsuki wa sumikeri
English Translation: Ōhara, ah!
at the spring of Oboro,
so far from the village,
no one comes to draw the water,
yet the moon dwells there, so clear.
Meaning: At Ōhara, the Oboro spring lies so far from the village that no one comes to draw its water—yet the moon dwells there, shining clear.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 277

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Moon at an old village"
The Oboro spring at Ōhara is so far from the village that no one comes to draw its water, yet the moon alone dwells there, its clear light lodged in the water. Contrasting the unvisited spring with the moon that lodges there unchanged, the poet portrays the quiet beauty of a mountain village.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on the moon" and places the poem in the miscellaneous section.

Line 1: ya is an exclamatory particle, naming Ōhara in Yamashiro.
Line 2 names the famed spring of Oboro at Ōhara, whose name, meaning "hazy," echoes the moonlight.
Line 3, sato tōmi, means "since the village is far," with mi on an adjective stem giving the reason.
Line 4 concludes the binding particle koso with the evaluative kumane and continues concessively, "though people do not draw it."
Line 5: sumi is a pivot word meaning both the moonlight "shining clear" and the moon "dwelling." It uses the same pivot word as the last line of 275; there it ended in conjecture, here with keri of realization, setting side by side the moon dwelling in a house people have left and in a spring no one visits.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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