[36] なつ (Natsu)

 Poem Meaning and Background

Photo by Terra Roro on Unsplash

なつのよわ・まだよいながら・あけぬるを

natsu no yo wa・mada yoi nagara・akenuru o

くものいづこに・つきやどるらむ
kumo no izuko ni・tsuki yadoruran

〜清原 深養父 (Kiyohara no Fukayabu)

Translation

In the summer night

The evening still seems present,

But the dawn is here.

To what region of the clouds

Has the wandering moon come home?

Meaning

This charming poem attempts to capture a fleeting summer night. Time flies when you're having a good time, which must mean the author was having a very pleasant evening because, before he knew it, the night had ended. In fact, it ended so fast, that the author seems to think the moon didn't even have time to set and instead must be nesting behind some clouds. 

In the second line of the poem, yoi means early evening time. When the author says, まだよいながら it basically means that he still thought it was early evening. Clearly, the author is mistaken, for in the next line, he says that the dawn has come. Kumo no izuko ni means くものどこに (lit. where in the clouds?). The author personifies the moon by using the verb 宿る(yadoru: to take shelter at, to lodge at), implying the moon has taken up residence somewhere in the clouds. By ending the poem with らむ(ran), the author is showing that he is making a guess or supposition rather than a statement.

Author

Kiyohara no Fukayabu (dates unknown) was a well known poet in the Heian period, and 17 of his poems are also included in the Kokin Wakashū, an imperial poetry anthology. His grandson, Kiyohara no Motosuke, was author of poem [42]Chigiriki, and his great-granddaughter, Sei Shōnagon, was author of [62] Yoo. He was also a renowned koto player in his time. 

"The Pillow Book", a famous collection of essays by Sei Shōnagon has a line in it which seems to make reference to this poem.