山の端に飽かで入りぬる夕月夜
いつ有明にならむとすらむ
いつ有明にならむとすらむ
- Roma-ji
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Yamanoha ni akade irinuru yūzukuyo itsu ariake ni naramu to suramu
- English Translation
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Behind the mountain's rim
before I gazed my fill it set,
the moon of evening;
when, I wonder, will it be
the moon that lingers at dawn
- Meaning
- The evening moon has slipped behind the mountain's rim before I could gaze my fill. When will it become the dawn moon that lingers till daybreak?
- Commentary
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Book Three Autumn Poems 174
The evening moon sets behind the mountain before one can gaze one's fill, so the poet longs for the day when it will become the dawn moon that stays in the sky until morning. Drawing on the moon's rising and setting changing day by day, the poem expresses the wish to gaze at the moon for long.
With this poem the long sequence on the moon begins. The next poem, 175, also ends on 'evening moon', and the two stand together as poems on the evening moon.
From poem 174 through poem 217 in this book a long sequence of moon poems follows, from the evening moon through the bright moon of the fifteenth night of the Eighth Month to the moon at dawn, singing of the moon in all its aspects and of the heart that gazes on it.
First line, 'yamanoha ni', means at the mountain's rim, where the moon sets.
Second line, 'akade irinuru', uses the negative conjunctive de: it has set before I tired of it.
Third line, 'yūzukuyo', is the moon that rises in the evening and sets early in the night, the moon of the early days of the lunar month. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, 'itsu ariake ni', means when into the dawn moon, the moon that remains in the sky after daybreak. Poems 213 and 214 in this book sing of that dawn moon.
Final line, 'naramu to suramu', means will it become, ramu being the auxiliary of present conjecture.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Yū sareba kadota no inaba otozurete ashi no maroya ni akikaze zo fuku
- Next Poem
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Kaze fukeba eda yasukaranu ko no ma yori honomeku aki no yūzukuyo kana