Tsuyu o nado ada naru mono to omoikemu waga mi mo kusa ni okanu bakari o - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

露をなどあだなるものと思ひけむ
我が身も草に置かぬばかりを

Roma-ji: Tsuyu o nado ada naru mono to omoikemu waga mi mo kusa ni okanu bakari o
English Translation: Why did I believe
that the dew was something
fleeting and so frail?
This body too differs only
in not lying on the grass.
Meaning: Why did I ever think of the dew as fleeting? My own body differs from it only in that it does not rest upon the grass.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Poems of Lament 860

Headnote: "Composed when about to die"
This poem was composed as the poet faced death. He had always thought of dew as fleeting, but now realizes that his own body is just as fleeting, differing only in that it does not rest on the grass. Likening his life to dew, he quietly expresses his feelings on the brink of death.
Where the preceding poem made autumn leaves a figure for life, this one makes dew a figure for the poet's own body; both lay his life upon fragile things of nature.
The author, Fujiwara no Koremoto, is otherwise unknown; this is his only poem in the Kokinshū.

The first line, "why the dew," uses nado, "why," as a question directed at himself.
The second line, "as a fleeting thing," uses ada, fragile or fleeting.
The third line, "did I think," answers nado with the past conjectural kemu. The poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "my body too, on the grass," refers to his own body.
The last line, "only it does not rest," uses oku, the verb for dew settling, likening his body to dew.
Author: Fujiwara no Koremoto
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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