月を見て思ふ心のままならば
行方も知らずあくがれなまし
行方も知らずあくがれなまし
- Roma-ji
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Tsuki o mite omou kokoro no mama naraba yukue mo shirazu akugarenamashi
- English Translation
-
Gazing at the moon,
were I to follow the heart
that stirs within me,
not knowing where I was bound
I would wander off and away
- Meaning
- If I let myself follow the feelings that rise as I gaze at the moon, I would wander off, not knowing where I was going.
- Commentary
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Book Three Autumn Poems 189
If she gave herself up to the feelings that rise as she gazes at the moon, the poet says, she would drift away, no one knows where. The poem expresses an emotion so strong that the heart, captivated by the moon, seems about to leave the body.
The word akugaru also appears in poem 224 in this book, describing the heart drawn away by the cry of a deer.
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.
The author was Higo, a daughter of Fujiwara no Sadanari, Governor of Higo, who served in the household of the Kyōgoku Regent Fujiwara no Morozane. She was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences.
First line, 'tsuki o mite', means gazing at the moon.
Second line, 'omou kokoro no', means the feelings that rise on seeing it.
Third line, 'mama naraba', means if I followed them as they are, a supposition answered by mashi in the final line.
Fourth line, 'yukue mo shirazu', means not knowing where.
Final line, 'akugarenamashi', uses akugaru, for the heart to leave the body and wander, with the intensive na and the contrary-to-fact mashi: I would surely wander off.
- Author
- Kyōgoku Kanpaku-ke no Higo
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Suminoboru kokoro ya sora o harauramu kumo no chiri inu aki no yo no tsuki
- Next Poem
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Ika ni shite shigarami kakemu amanogawa nagaruru tsuki ya shibashi yodomu to