[23] つき (Tsuki)

Poem Meaning and Background

Woodblock print by Kōhō Shoda

つきみれば・ちぢにものこそ・かなしけれ
tsuki mireba・ chiji ni mono koso・ kanashi kere

わがみひとつの・あきにはあらねど

waga mi hitotsu no・ aki ni wa aranedo

〜大江千里  (Ōe no Chisato)

Translation

As I view the moon,

A thousand thoughts come to mind,

filling me with woe;

Yet it's not for me alone,

That the autumn time has come.

Meaning

    Since ancient times, autumn has been a time that brings about a feeling of pensiveness, and especially at night when the long, dark nights can lead to feelings of deep loneliness and isolation. This poem is an expression of this theme, while at the same time tapping into a common type of poetic expression of the time period. 

    

    Around the early Heian Period, poems which adopted techniques from Chinese poetry were popular, The author, being a scholar of Chinese poetry, was quite good at this sort of poetry. For this poem, he borrowed from a poem by a renowned Chinese poet, 白楽天 (Hakurakuten, in Japanese, 白居易 in Chinese, or Bai Juyi in English). 

    The particular technique the author employs in this poem is that of 対句(tsuiku) which are essentially antithetical couplets. In this poem, he pairs together opposing ideas, such as the moon and himself, a thousand thoughts and alone. The vast gulf between the scope of these ideas deepens the sense of melancholy that he seeks to convey through his poem. 

Author

Ōe no Chisato (dates unknown) was a waka poet and scholar of Chinese, said to be on par with the scholar Sugawara no Michizane (also known as Kan Ke), author of poem [24] Kono. He is the nephew of Ariwarano Yukihira and Ariwarano Narihira, authors of poems [16] Tachi and [17] Chiha, respectively.