The summer moon above a shrine.[i]

ながむれば吹く風すずしみわの山杉の木ずゑをいづる月影

nagamureba fuku kaze suzushi miwa no yama sugi no kozue o izuru tsukikage

While I was staring into space, How cool the gusting breeze, as Above Mount Miwa’s Cedar treetops Emerges the moon…[ii]

634

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[i] As with poem 631, the topic here, ‘The summer moon above the shrine’ (shatō kagetsu 社頭夏月) was generally used when the poet had a specific shrine in mind—in this case, Ōmiwa Shrine (Ōmiwa jinja 大神神社).

[ii] See: As part of a hundred-poem sequence. ながむれば衣手すゞしひさかたのあまのかはらの秋のゆふぐれ nagamureba / koromode suzushi / hisakata no / ama no kawara no / aki no yūgure ‘While I was staring into space, / How chill my sleeves became; / Upon eternal / Heaven’s riverbed / Comes an autumn evening.’ Princess Shokushi (Shinkokinshū IV: 321)