Tsukikage mo saya ni wa miezu kakikurasu kokoro no yami no hareshi yaraneba

月影もさやには見えずかき暗す
心の闇の晴れしやらねば

Roma-ji: Tsukikage mo saya ni wa miezu kakikurasu kokoro no yami no hareshi yaraneba
English Translation: Even the moonlight
I cannot clearly see,
so dark has grown
the darkness of my heart,
which never clears away.
Meaning: I cannot see even the moonlight clearly, for the darkness of my heart, shrouding all, will not clear away.
Commentary: Love Poems 522

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love, on the moon"
Because the darkness of a heart lost in love will not clear, the poet cannot see even the moonlight clearly. The brightness of the moon outside is set against the darkness within.

Line 1 means "even the moonlight."
Line 2 means "is not clearly seen," and the poem pauses here.
Line 3 means "darkening utterly," suggesting also eyes darkened by tears.
Line 4 means "of the heart's darkness," the darkness of one lost in love.
Line 5 means "since it never clears," the reason placed last by inversion; the moon felt so tenderly in the preceding poem is now hidden by the heart's darkness.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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