Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Priest Saigyō

Meaning

Did the moon ask me to grieve? These tears on my face — it is as if I am blaming the moon for making me feel this way.

Commentary

The speaker turns inward grief outward, personifying the moon as a cause — then catches himself in the projection. His tears have a "blaming face" (kakochi-gao), acting as if the moon caused this sadness. But the moon never asked him to grieve; the grief comes from within. It is a poem of self-aware melancholy, unusually introspective.

Saigyō (1118–1190) was a warrior who renounced court life at twenty-three to become a wandering poet-monk. He is one of the most beloved figures in Japanese literary history, celebrated for combining Buddhist insight with raw emotional honesty. His poetry is still widely read today, eight centuries after his death.

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