Poem by Kiyohara no Fukayabu, from the series One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki)
Katsushika Hokusai Japanese
Not on view
This poem by the early tenth century poet Kiyohara no Fukayabu, originally appearing in the "Summer" section of the Kokin waka shū, laments the fleeting moon and is paired with Hokusai's imagined scene of a night's outing on a pleasure boat to escape the heat:
Natsu no yo wa
mada yohi nagara
akenuru no
kumo no izu ko ni
tsuki ya doruran
A summer's night in twilight still barely begun
the moon must be somewhere awake, too,
in amongst the clouds.
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