classic waka stream

山路にてそをちにけりな白露の
暁おきの木々の雫に
Roma-ji

Yamaji nite soochi ni keri na shiratsuyu no akatsuki oki no kigi no shizuku ni

English Translation
On the mountain road
I find I am drenched right through;
where the white dew lies,
rising at dawn, I have walked
through the drops falling from the trees.
Meaning
On the mountain road I find myself soaked through by the drops falling from trees laden with white dew, having risen at dawn to set out.
Commentary
Book Ten Travel Poems 924

Headnote: "For the Hundred-Poem Sequences of the Horikawa-in."
This is the fifth of a sequence of poems on the loneliness of sleeping on a journey. Rising at dawn to take the mountain road, the speaker finds himself soaked by drops from trees laden with white dew, a morning of early departure. According to the headnote, it was composed as part of a hundred-poem sequence in the time of the Horikawa-in.
The author, "Provisional Middle Counselor Kuninobu," is Minamoto no Kuninobu. A son of Minister of the Right Minamoto no Akifusa, he served close to Emperor Horikawa and rose to Provisional Middle Counselor, a noble of the late Heian period.
The scene is dawn on a journey, on a mountain road thick with trees.
The direct occasion is the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences, in which poets presented sets of one hundred poems in the reign of Emperor Horikawa.

The first line, "yamaji nite," means "on the mountain road." The "yamaji" imagined by the one left behind in 902 is here walked by the traveler himself.
The second line, "soochi ni keri na," means "I find I am soaked through." "Sohotsu" means to be wet, and "ni keri na" expresses a feeling just realized. The poem breaks after this second line, and by inversion the cause is placed below. As with "asagiri ni nurenishi koromo" in 902, it pictures a traveler drenched on a mountain road.
The third line, "shiratsuyu no," means "of the white dew," and leads into "oki."
In the fourth line, "akatsuki oki no," "oki" carries both the traveler's "rising" at dawn and the white dew "settling." After "akatsukigata" in 920, dawn on a journey is sung of again.
The last line, "kigi no shizuku ni," means "by the drops from the trees." By inversion the cause of the soaking comes last. Where "hitori tsuyukeki" in the preceding poem is dew that includes tears, this poem sings of a morning on the road soaked by real drops of dew.
Author
Minamoto no Kunizane
Source
Shin Kokin Wakashu
Other