[LOOKING AT THE MOON AFTER RAIN]
Note 17.
Half of the moon-toad is already up.
In Chinese mythology, the ch'an, a three-legged toad, lives in the moon and is supposed to swallow it during an eclipse. The toad is very long-lived and grows horns at the age of three thousand years. It was originally a woman named Ch'ang O, who stole the drug of Immortality and fled to the moon to escape her husband's wrath. The moon is often referred to as ch'an, as in the poem.
Note 18.
The glimmer of it is like smooth hoar-frost spreading over ten thousand li.
A li is a Chinese land measurement, equal to about one third of a mile.
Note 19.