Tamasaka ni miru mono ni moga ise no umi no kiyoki nagisa no aki no yo no tsuki

たまさかに見るものにもが伊勢の海の
清き渚の秋の夜の月

Roma-ji: Tamasaka ni miru mono ni moga ise no umi no kiyoki nagisa no aki no yo no tsuki
English Translation: If only it were
something I might see by chance,
O sea of Ise—
on your clear and shining shore,
the moon of the autumn night.
Meaning: If only I could see it, even now and then—the autumn night's moon over the clear shore of the sea of Ise.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 279

Headnote: "Moon by the sea"
The poet wishes that the autumn moon shining over the clear shore of the sea of Ise were something he could see, even only now and then. Picturing the beauty of the moon over the distant Ise shore, he sings of longing for a scene he cannot see.
The Ruijū and Teika texts differ in line 3. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle.

Line 1, tamasaka ni, means "now and then, rarely." The preceding poem, 278, opens with wakuraba ni, of the same meaning, so both poems wish to see something even rarely.
Line 2: moga is a final particle of wishing, "I wish it were something I could see," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3, "the sea of Ise," is hypermetric. Four poems from here through 282 fall under the topic "Moon by the sea."
Line 4 means "of the clear shore."
Line 5 ends on a noun; it is the same last line as 274.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
Prev Poem: Wakuraba ni yukite mo mishiga samegai no furuki shimizu ni yadoru tsukikage
Next Poem: Ise no umi ya nami ni taketaru aki no yo no ariake no tsuki ni matsukaze zo fuku