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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
紫式部
めぐり逢ひて
見しやそれとも
わかぬ間に
雲隠れにし
夜半の月かな
くもかくれ
にしよはの
つきかな
め
- Poem 57
- めぐり逢ひて
見しやそれとも
わかぬ間に
雲隠れにし 夜半の月かな
Author: Murasaki Shikibu (c. 970–c. 1014)
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- I wandered forth this moonlight night, And some one hurried by; But who it was I could
not see,— Clouds driving o'er the sky Obscured the moon on high.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- We met for just a moment, yet I could not be sure it was really you — and then you vanished behind the clouds, like the midnight moon.
- Commentary
- The headnote in the Shin Kokin Wakashū reads, "Composed when a childhood friend, whom she had not seen in years, came to visit around the tenth day of the seventh month, but hurried off again, racing the moon." This poem was composed out of regret that, despite finally reuniting with a childhood friend, that friend left again so soon.
- About the Poet
- Murasaki Shikibu was precociously clever from childhood — it is said that when her father read Chinese poetry aloud to her younger brother, she would pick it up faster than he did, just from listening nearby. Word of her gift for writing an intriguing tale eventually reached Fujiwara no Michinaga, who brought her to serve Empress Shōshi, consort of Emperor Ichijō. While serving as one of Shōshi's tutors, Murasaki Shikibu completed The Tale of Genji, considered the world's first full-length novel.
- Murasaki Shikibu'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)
I finally thought we'd met again —
but you vanished like the moon behind a cloud.A reunion too brief even to say your name,
and yet it lingers all the more in my heart.
- 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).