Omoiki ya arishi mukashi no tsukikage o ima wa kumoi no yoso ni mimu to wa

思ひきやありし昔の月影を
今は雲居のよそに見むとは

Roma-ji: Omoiki ya arishi mukashi no tsukikage o ima wa kumoi no yoso ni mimu to wa
English Translation: Did I ever think
that the moonlight that I knew
in the days gone by
I would watch now from afar,
far off among the clouds?
Meaning: Did I ever think that the moonlight I knew in days gone by I would now watch as something far away, beyond the clouds?
Commentary: Love Poems 495

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Hidden love, on the moon"
The poet never imagined he would gaze at the moonlight he once knew so closely as something distant above the clouds. The moon is laid over a beloved now far and out of reach.

Line 1 means "did I think? never," ya rhetorical; the poem pauses here.
Line 2 means "of the past that was," corresponding to "of the familiar past" in the preceding poem.
Line 3 means "the moonlight," taking up kage from the preceding poem.
Line 4 means "now in the far sky," kumoi also suggesting the court.
Line 5 means "that I would see it from afar," returning to line 1 by inversion.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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