Waga yado no yūkagekusa no shiratsuyu no kenu gani motona omōyuru kamo

我がやどの夕蔭草の白露の
消ぬがにもとな思ほゆるかも

Roma-ji: Waga yado no yūkagekusa no shiratsuyu no kenu gani motona omōyuru kamo
English Translation: At my dwelling place,
on the grass in evening shade,
the white dew lies there;
fit to vanish, helplessly,
so my thoughts go out to you
Meaning: Like the white dew on the grass in the evening shadows of my garden, so helplessly do I think of you that I feel I could fade away.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 594

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Twenty-four poems sent by Lady Kasa to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
With the white dew on the grass in the evening shadows of her garden as its preface, she says she thinks of him so helplessly that she feels she could vanish. A delicate poem that overlays on the fleeting dew a feeling of fading away with love.
The author, Lady Kasa, was a woman poet of the Nara period who sent many love poems to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Little else is known of her.

First line, "At my dwelling place," means in the garden of my house.
Second line, "on the grass in evening shade," names yūkagekusa, grass in the shadows of evening light, a quiet dusk scene.
Third line, "the white dew lies there," names the dew on the grass; the first three lines form a preface to kenu, "to vanish."
Fourth line, "fit to vanish, helplessly," uses gani, "to the point of," and motona, "without reason": so helplessly that I might vanish.
Fifth line, "so my thoughts go out to you," means so you come to mind, with the exclamatory kamo.
Author: Lady Kasa
Source: Manyoshu
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