Kage yadosu tsuyu nomi shigeku narihatete kusa ni yatsururu furusato no tsuki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

影宿す露のみしげくなり果てて
草にやつるる故郷の月

Roma-ji: Kage yadosu tsuyu nomi shigeku narihatete kusa ni yatsururu furusato no tsuki
English Translation: Holding its image,
only dew grows thick and thicker,
until in the end
shabby in the tangled grass—
the moon of the old village.
Meaning: Only the dew that holds its light has grown thick everywhere, until the moon of the old village looks shabby among the grasses.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1668

Headnote: "When I presented a set of fifty poems."
This is the first poem of a sequence on ruined dwellings. The dew holding the moon's light has grown thick everywhere, and the moon of the old village looks shabby among the grasses. According to the headnote, it was composed when he presented a set of fifty poems.
The author, "Masatsune," was a son of Fujiwara no Yoritsune and one of the compilers of the Shin Kokinshū. Also skilled at kemari football, he founded the Asukai house.

The first line, "kage yadosu," means "holding the moon's light."
The second line, "tsuyu nomi shigeku," means "only the dew, thick." "Nomi" shows that no one visits, only the dew abounds.
The third line, "narihatete," means "having come to be so entirely."
The fourth line, "kusa ni yatsururu," means "looking shabby in the grass." Applying "yatsuru," a word for a person's worn looks, to the moon, it entrusts the loneliness of the ruined village to the moon's appearance.
The last line, "furusato no tsuki," ends in a noun, closing on the moon lighting the ruined old home. From the mountain path no one visits in the preceding poem, it moves to an old home where no one lives any longer.
Author: Asukai Masatsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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