Akihagi no eda mo tōo ni oku tsuyu no ke ka mo shinamashi koitsutsu arazu wa

秋萩の枝もとををに置く露の
消かもしなまし恋ひつつあらずは

Roma-ji: Akihagi no eda mo tōo ni oku tsuyu no ke ka mo shinamashi koitsutsu arazu wa
English Translation: Autumn bush clover,
its branches bending low
with the dew that lies—
should I vanish too, like it,
rather than be always longing?
Meaning: Like the dew that lies so heavy it bends the branches of the autumn bush clover, should I simply vanish—rather than go on longing like this?
Commentary: Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2258

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Dew"
This poem laments that, like dew lying so heavily it bends the autumn bush clover's branches, it would be better to vanish than go on longing. Sharing its lower lines with 2254 and 2256, it is the third of the variant poems that change how the dew lies in the upper lines. It uses the same expression as the upper lines of 2170 in the autumn miscellaneous poems, "dew and frost settle on the autumn bush clover till its branches bend."

The first line, "of the autumn bush clover," names the plant.
In the second line, "eda mo tōo ni," "tōo" describes branches bending, the same line as in 2170.
The third line, "like the dew that lies," with the upper lines forming a preface leading into "ke."
The fourth line, "ke ka mo shinamashi," is the same as in 2254.
The last line, "koitsutsu arazu wa," is the same ending as 2254.
Source: Manyoshu
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