Gazing at the moon here is not purely peaceful; it opens up sadness “in a thousand ways.” The moon is beautiful but distant, and autumn brings with it thoughts of ending, fading, and time slipping away. The speaker seems to feel a personal ache in that moment—maybe loneliness, maybe grief at the season’s beauty passing. But then the thought turns outward: “all the autumns” are not meant to belong only to the speaker. The sadness is real, but so is the recognition that other people have felt it before and are feeling it now. That small shift gives the poem a quiet, bittersweet comfort. The mood is still, melancholy, and tender, as if isolation softens into shared human experience.
Hokku 76 — Summary
To gaze upon the moon Is to be sad in a thousand ways,
Though all the autumns Are not meant to be my own self's alone.