Toku mino kiku no shiratsuyu yoru wa okite tsutomete kien koto o shi zo omou - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

とくみのきくの白露夜はおきて
つとめて消えんことをしぞ思ふ

Roma-ji: Toku mino kiku no shiratsuyu yoru wa okite tsutomete kien koto o shi zo omou
English Translation: The Law being preached,
I hear, like white dew on mums;
rising in the night,
at dawn, still at my devotions, to vanish—
this alone is all I wish.
Meaning: Hearing the Law preached, like white dew on chrysanthemums that settles by night and vanishes at dawn, I long only to rise through the night in devotion and fade away while still at my practice.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1932

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "From among his poems of personal reflection."
This is the third poem in the sequence of reflections on reading the sutras and pondering the Law. The poet wishes to rise at night to hear the Law and, as the white dew on chrysanthemums vanishes at dawn, to end his life in the midst of devotions. The headnote continues from the preceding poem: one of his poems of personal reflection.
Stacking pivot words, he entrusts to the image of dew that settles and vanishes in a single night the wish for rebirth of one who hears the Law and practices through the night.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Saki no Daisōjō Jien, a Tendai monk, son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as head abbot of the Tendai school and wrote the historical work Gukanshō.

The first line, "toku mino," is understood as "the Law being preached." The text writes it as the four syllables "tokumino."
In the second line, "kiku no shiratsuyu," "kiku" is a pivot word joining "to hear" the Law and "chrysanthemum." The white dew on the chrysanthemum becomes a figure for the fleeting self.
In the third line, "yoru wa okite," "oki" is a pivot word joining "rising" at night to practice and dew "settling," and the line has extra syllables.
In the fourth line, "tsutomete kien," "tsutomete" is a pivot word meaning both "early morning" and "practicing" the Way. The dew vanishing at dawn is overlaid with ending one's life in devotion.
The last line, "koto o shi zo omou," closes the kakari-musubi of the emphatic "shi" and "zo" with the attributive "omou," showing a heart that longs for this alone. Time moves from the night of the "dark road" in the preceding poem to the morning of this one.
Author: Jien
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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