Milky Way Comments

in a slight different translation: '' ama no kawa mayonaka no yoidore wa odoru'' '' beneath the River of Heaven / the drunkard dances all night '' (the 'River of Heaven' is the Milky Way for the Japanese people)

the milky way is an Autumn kigo

about Santōka's alcoholism he struggled with this problem for a good deal of his life. On several occasions he was even arrested for public drunkenness and vagrancy.