Kokinshu #166

Written around dawn on a night the moon was lovely.

    On those summer nights
when it still seems late evening
    but then it is dawn,
where in the clouds, I wonder,
is the moon finding lodgings?

—19? November 2009, rev 3 April 2010, 14 October 2011

Original by Kiyowara no Fukayabu. Previously posted as Hyakunin Isshu #36 but revised since. A momentary return to the short summer nights theme -- the conceit being that, what with the night being so short, the moon shouldn't have the time to cross the whole sky so must instead be setting ("lodging") behind a cloud. "Seems" is interpretive.


natsu no yo wa
mada yoi nagara
akenuru o
kumo no izuku ni
tsuki yadoruramu

---L.