Moon poems (1)

[flyingrat]

Since we're coming up on the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, I felt the urge to post some moon poems over the next few days. (Hope the flist doesn't mind.)

For today, here are some classical Japanese waka (5-7-5-7-7), composed on the subject of the moon.

While I gaze upon it
I feel a certain distance:
The moon light
Makes its way to dwellings
Everywhere, I feel.

- Ki no Tsurayuki (Kokinshu XVII: 880)

On summer nights
It's just past sundown, and
Already dawn is breaking,
But, where amongst the clouds
Does the moon find lodging?

- Fukayabu (Kokinshu III: 166)


When on an autumn night,
The moonlight
Shines,
Through even mountains of Darkness
Can I make my way.

- Ariwara no Motokata (Kokinshu IV: 195)


Without a trace of cloud,
For a thousand years upon the limpid
Water’s surface
The lodging moon
Light brings peace.

- Murasaki Shikibu (Shinkokinshu VII: 722)

At the mountain's edge
A darling boy:
The field of heaven
He wades across, his light
A pleasant sight.

- Lady Otomo no Sakanoue (Man'yoshu VI: 983; "darling boy" was a poetic nickname for the moon)