秋の野におく白露は玉なれや
つらぬきかくるくもの糸すぢ
つらぬきかくるくもの糸すぢ
- Roma-ji
-
Aki no no ni oku shiratsuyu wa tama nare ya
tsuranukikakuru kumo no itosuji - English Translation
-
On autumn fields lie
drops of white dew—are they gems?
threaded one by one
upon the slender strands spun
of a spider’s woven thread.
- Meaning
- The white dew lying upon the grasses of the autumn field—are they jewels, strung one by one upon the threads of a spider’s web?
- Commentary
-
Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)
Composed for a poetry contest at the residence of Prince Koretada.
The scene of white dew clinging to the spider’s threads stretched among the grasses is likened to jewels threaded upon a string.
- Author
- Funya no Asayasu
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- If one were to break and take it, surely it would fall away at once— on autumn bush clover boughs white dew lies, bending the stems.
- Though bush clover blooms may be falling in the fields, through dew and white frost I will go on, drenched as I am, even though the night grows late.
- Drawn by but the name, I only plucked you, maiden-flower— speak not, I implore, tell no one that I have fallen so low as to be thus ensnared.
- Maidenflower there— with distaste I pass it by, going on my way;— for it stands upon Mount Otoko, so it seems to me indeed.