Is this not that moon?
And Spring: is as the Spring of old
Is it not?
Only this body of mine
Is as it ever was…
-Ariwara no Narihira
I'm not sure a waka is what was in mind for analyzing, but I've found it to be the most effective form of poetry for me. This particular poem works for me in its simplicity. Despite its restrictive style (see Waka in wikipedia), it manages to ask two questions directly. beyond the direct questions, the poem is short and concise creating enough imagery and enough thought to last plenty of time. It isn't so general that the meaning is lost and the poem becomes something a third grader could produce. For me personally, the lack of detail helps me relate to the poem. I feel that extended detail can make it more difficult to extract the poem's meaning. Instead, this poem uses experiences and thoughts universal to us, while putting them together in a meaningful and complex way.
One issue with any poetry is that when it is translated there is a loss in meaning, this is especially true with translating this poem, where the Japanese language's difference in rhythm and overall sentence structure really leaves a large list of words that the translator must both fabricate and take away due to the nature of the translation.
Despite this, I feel this poem is both timeless and works well despite the difficult translation. It touches on a very basic emotion, but provokes more from the reader the more he or she reflects on the poem.
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