もろともに草葉の露のおきゐずは
ひとりや見まし秋の夜の月
ひとりや見まし秋の夜の月
- Roma-ji
-
Morotomo ni kusaba no tsuyu no okiizu wa hitori ya mimashi aki no yo no tsuki
- English Translation
-
Were the dew on grass
not awake and lying there
together with me,
would I watch alone, then,
the moon of an autumn night
- Meaning
- If the dew on the blades of grass did not stay awake with me, would I be left to gaze alone at the autumn night's moon?
- Commentary
-
Book Three Autumn Poems 177
Staying up late to watch the moon, the poet finds that the dew settling on the grass keeps him company, so he need not watch alone. By making the dew a companion in moon-viewing, the poem expresses the loneliness of the autumn night and fondness for what shares it.
Where the preceding poem, 176, makes the moon the only friend, this one makes the dew a companion in viewing the 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, 'morotomo ni', means together, that is, with the dew.
Second line, 'kusaba no tsuyu no', is the dew on the blades of grass, leading to oki in the third line.
Third line, 'okiizu wa', is a pivot word in which oki means both for dew to settle and for a person to stay awake; zu wa is a negative supposition answered by mashi in the fourth line, forming a contrary-to-fact condition.
Fourth line, 'hitori ya mimashi', means would I have watched alone, the particle ya joining the contrary-to-fact mashi.
Final line, 'aki no yo no tsuki', ends on a noun, naming at last what is watched. Poems 188, 200 and 209 in this book end with the same final line.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kusamakura kono tabine ni zo omoishiru tsuki yori hoka no tomo nakarikeri
- Next Poem
-
Itsuwari ni nari zo shinubeki tsukikage o kono miru bakari hito ni kataraba