Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Retired Emperor Sanjō

Meaning

If I live on in this painful world without purpose, I am sure I will come to miss this night and its lonely moon.

Commentary

The poem is suffused with resignation and a bittersweet appreciation of the present. The midnight moon becomes an emblem of beauty that can only be fully felt now, in this moment of world-weariness. The emperor fears he will one day look back on even this painful present and miss it.

Retired Emperor Sanjō reigned from 1011 to 1016, an era dominated by the powerful regent Fujiwara no Michinaga. He resisted abdication for years despite deteriorating eyesight and failing health. This poem is read as an expression of both world-weariness and deep aesthetic sensibility in a life constrained by political pressure.

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