Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Murasaki Shikibu

Meaning

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 poem describes a chance reunion with a childhood friend who departed too quickly. "Meguri-au" means both to meet by chance and for celestial bodies to come into conjunction. The "midnight moon hidden by clouds" (kumo-gakure ni shi yowa no tsuki) becomes a metaphor for the fleeting, uncertain encounter.

Murasaki Shikibu was the author of The Tale of Genji, widely considered the world's first full-length novel. She served Empress Shōshi at the Heian court and recorded her observations in the Murasaki Shikibu Diary. Her poem here is uncharacteristically personal in its longing for a lost friendship.

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