Koiwabite nobe no tsuyu to wa kienu tomo tare ka kusaba o aware to wa min - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋ひわびて野辺の露とは消えぬとも
誰か草葉をあはれとは見ん

Roma-ji: Koiwabite nobe no tsuyu to wa kienu tomo tare ka kusaba o aware to wa min
English Translation: Worn out by longing,
should I fade as dew does fade
in the open fields,
who would ever look with grief
upon the grass where I lay?
Meaning: Even if, worn out by love, I vanish like the dew of the fields, who would look upon those grass leaves with pity?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1339

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the dew sequence. Even if the speaker, worn out by love, vanishes like dew in the fields, no one, the speaker laments, will look with pity on the grass where that dew lay. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Middle Captain of the Left Kinhira," is Fujiwara no Kinhira. He was a son of Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kinyoshi and rose to Middle Captain of the Left Inner Palace Guards.

The first line, "koiwabite," means "worn out with love."
The second line, "nobe no tsuyu to wa," takes up "nobe no tsuyu wa," the first line of the preceding poem. The field dew that was compared with the tears on the sleeves there is here what the speaker would become.
In the third line, "kienu tomo," "nu" is the perfective auxiliary and "tomo" marks a concessive supposition. The vanishing of dew is overlaid with dying.
In the fourth line, "tare ka kusaba o," "ka" is a rhetorical particle. The grass leaves mark the trace of the speaker who has vanished as dew.
The last line, "aware to wa min," closes the kakari-musubi of "ka" with the attributive "n," a rhetorical question meaning that no one will look on with pity.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinhira
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Nobe no tsuyu wa iro mo nakute ya koboretsuru sode yori suguru ogi no uwakaze
Next Poem: Toe kashi na obana ga moto no omoigusa shioruru nobe no tsuyu wa ikani to