Asatsuyu no okute no yamada karisome ni ukiyo no naka o omoinuru kana - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

朝露のおくての山田かりそめに
憂き世の中を思ひぬるかな

Roma-ji: Asatsuyu no okute no yamada karisome ni ukiyo no naka o omoinuru kana
English Translation: On the mountain fields
where morning dew is lying
on the late-ripe rice,
as a thing that will be reaped
I now see this world of sorrow.
Meaning: As the late rice in the mountain fields, wet with morning dew, is soon reaped, I have come to think of this sorrowful world as a thing of fleeting passing.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems of Lament 842

Headnote: "Composed on the road to a mountain temple in the autumn of a year of mourning"
This poem was composed on the road to a mountain temple in the autumn of a year in which the poet was in mourning. From the sight of mountain fields covered in morning dew, he comes to think that the world is only a passing thing. The scene of the first half leads into the feeling of the second, so that the fragility of dew overlaps with the thoughts of mourning.
The author, Ki no Tsurayuki, was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface. He is one of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry.

The first line, "of morning dew," names dew that settles in the morning, a symbol of transience.
The second line, "the late rice of mountain fields," uses okute as a pivot word meaning both "the dew settles" and "late-ripening rice."
The third line, "fleetingly," uses karisome as a pivot word combining "reaping" the rice with "temporary" or "fleeting." The first two lines serve as a preface leading to this word.
The fourth line, "this world of sorrow," refers to the world full of hardship.
The last line, "I have come to think," uses the perfective nuru to exclaim over this change of mind.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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