Meet the Poets of Hyakunin Isshu
Ōe no Chisato

Meaning

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 was inspired by a verse in Bai Juyi's Collected Works (Bai shi wenji), in the section known as "The Swallow Tower."

The pairing of "chiji ni" (a thousand-fold, or manifold) with "hitori" (alone, or one) creates a contrast between the multitude of sorrows and the solitude of a single self — a technique drawn from the antithetical phrasing of Chinese verse, here adapted into a Japanese waka.

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