211Haiku 俳句
名月や池をめぐりて夜もすがら
めいげつやいけをめぐりてよもすがらMeigetsu ya ike o megurite yomosugara
“Harvest moon — all night long I paced around the pond.”
The meaning
A whole night walking around a pond so as not to lose sight of the moon. The poem says what it is to truly love looking.
At the origin
Bashō's haiku on the autumn moon, the most celebrated of the Japanese calendar.
The characters
- 名月 meigetsuharvest moon
- や yacutting word
- 池 ikepond
- を
- めぐりて
- 夜もすがら
やParticle“And” of an open list: among others. In a haiku it is the cut — a silence that parts the verse.
In practice
Give a beautiful thing more time than is reasonable.
Themes
Similar proverbs
- 166 名月を取ってくれろと泣く子かな "Catch me the moon!" cries the child.
- 101 月に叢雲、花に風 Over the moon, gathering clouds; over blossoms, wind.
- 111 花は盛りに、月は隈なきをのみ見るものかは Should we look at blossoms only in full bloom, at the moon only when it is clear?
- 136 花鳥風月 Flowers, birds, wind, moon.
- 160 古池や蛙飛び込む水の音 Old pond — a frog leaps in, sound of water.