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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
大江千里
月みれば
ちぢにものこそ
悲しけれ
わが身一つの
秋にはあらねど
わかみひと
つのあきに
はあらねと
つき
- Poem 23
- 月みれば
ちぢにものこそ
悲しけれ
わが身一つの 秋にはあらねど
Author: Ōe no Chisato (dates unknown)
Source: Kokin Wakashū, Autumn
- English Verse Translation
- This night the cheerless autumn moon Doth all my mind enthrall; But others also have their griefs,
For autumn on us all Hath cast her gloomy pall.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- When I look at the moon, a thousand thoughts rise up and fill me with sadness. Yet this autumn is not mine alone.
- Commentary
- This poem draws on a passage from "Yanzi Lou" ("Swallow Tower"), a poem in Bai Juyi's collection Hakushi Monjū. It pairs the "thousand" in "a thousand sorrows" against the "one" in "myself alone," applying the antithetical-couplet technique characteristic of Chinese verse to a Japanese waka.
- About the Poet
- Ōe no Chisato was born into a family of scholars, the son of Councillor Ōe no Otondo. A Doctor of Letters well versed in Chinese classics, he was also gifted at waka poetry. In 894 he presented Emperor Uda with the Kudai Waka, a collection of poems composed on themes drawn from Chinese verse — the very year Sugawara no Michizane proposed abolishing the embassies to Tang China. Chisato can be seen as a figure symbolizing the era's shift from Chinese poetry toward Japanese waka. His official rank, Junior Assistant Minister of Military Affairs, was a modest one, and he never rose higher.
- Ōe no Chisato's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
The clear autumn moon
shines all the way into my heart.Everyone must be looking at the same moon —
yet this sadness feels like mine alone.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).