While I gaze upon it
I feel a certain distance:
The moon light
Makes its way to dwellings
Everywhere, I feel.
Notes
Poetic form:- Tanka
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Comments
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while gazing at the moon it seems distant, cold, lonely.
yet it light shines upon everything, into everything giving them a warm friendly glow.
what is far away can seem cold yet when brought closer is warm and inviting.
just my take
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well, I have the opposite understanding of andrewhide...Though he is feeling distant..line two he is also reassuring himself that everywhere is a dwelling...so i would take it that he was trying to comfort himself from his feeling of loneliness by trying to compare himself to the moon light which has a dwelling everywhere.... ofcourse only he knows what he meant
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I think the key to the emotional undertone of this piece by Tsurayuki lies in line two.
I would imagine this was written whilst Ki no Tsurayuki was traveling, and feeling far from home, although he is still bathed in the moon light, he feels as though he isn't, because the moon light makes it way to dwellings, everywhere, yet he is unable to. It creates a strong sense of loneliness, as if he is far from all humanity.
Andrew -
my take on this was that sometimes it's good to able to look at things objectively, with detached emotion, because as soon as one becomes familiar with something, it can no longer be viewed in the same light.
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