Set near the temple Engakuji, these lines conjure a night filled with fragrance, moonlight, and music. The speaker feels the moon descend almost physically, as if it is pouring memory into a cup of song. Rather than thinking in clear thoughts, the speaker is swept along by sensation: perfume becomes music, music becomes perfume, and the soul drifts like a wind too full to sing. The mood is hushed and ecstatic, veering between tender nostalgia and a longing to dissolve into the pale radiance of the night. By the close, birds, flowers, and trees seem to welcome “Oblivion’s ruin white,” suggesting a beautiful surrender—less like defeat and more like falling peacefully into the moonlit dark, where boundaries between self, memory, and scene blur.
By the Engakuji Temple: Moon Night — Summary
Through the breath of perfume, (O music of musics !) Down creeps the moon To fill my cup of song With memory's wine.
Across the song of night and moon, (O perfume of perfumes !) My soul, as a wind Whose heart's too full to sing, Only roams astray . . .
Down the tide of the sweet night (O the ecstasy's gentle rise !) The birds, flowers and trees Are glad at once to fall Into Oblivion's ruin white.