Tsukikage no sasu ni makasete yuku fune wa akashi no ura ya tomari naruramu - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

月影のさすにまかせて行く舟は
明石の浦や泊りなるらむ

Roma-ji: Tsukikage no sasu ni makasete yuku fune wa akashi no ura ya tomari naruramu
English Translation: Letting moonlight lead
as it falls and as poles push,
the boat that travels,
is it at Akashi Bay
that it will come to harbor
Meaning: The boat that sails on wherever the moonlight falls, poled along its path: will it come to anchor at the Bay of Akashi?
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 208

The boat that moves across the night sea, poled along wherever the moonlight falls, must surely come to rest at the Bay of Akashi, famous for its moon. The poem paints a lovely picture of a boat journey guided by moonlight.
Akashi, famous for its moon, appears also in poems 179 and 216 in this book. The word tomari, harbor, in the final line is also used in the book's last poem, 256.
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, 'tsukikage no', means the moonlight.
Second line, 'sasu ni makasete', is a pivot word in which sasu means both for light to fall and to push a boat with a pole, an associated word of the boat.
Third line, 'yuku fune wa', means the boat that goes, presenting the topic.
Fourth line, 'akashi no ura ya', is the Bay of Akashi in Harima, famous for its moon; the particle ya binds with ramu in the final line.
Final line, 'tomari naruramu', uses tomari, a harbor: will it be its anchorage? The book's last poem, 256, closes with the same word in 'autumn's harbor'.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
Prev Poem: Todae shite hito mo kayowanu tanahashi wa tsuki bakari koso sumiwatarikere
Next Poem: Saranu dani tama ni magaite oku tsuyu o itodo migakeru aki no yo no tsuki