Saoshika no tachinarasu ono no akihagi ni okeru shiratsuyu ware mo kenubeshi - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さを鹿の立ちならす小野の秋萩に
置ける白露我も消ぬべし

Roma-ji: Saoshika no tachinarasu ono no akihagi ni okeru shiratsuyu ware mo kenubeshi
English Translation: Like the white dew laid
on the bush clover of the meadow
where the stag comes treading,
settled there, I too, it seems,
must surely fade away
Meaning: Like the white dew on the autumn bush clover of the meadow where the stag comes treading, I too, it seems, must fade away.
Commentary: Book Six Autumn Poems II 306

Headnote: "When, in the Engi era, the emperor called for poems."
The poet says that like the white dew on the autumn bush clover of the meadow where the stag comes treading, he too seems about to fade away. Overlaying himself on the frailty of the dew on the bush clover, he expresses a feeling of being about to vanish.
According to the headnote, it was composed when Emperor Daigo, in the Engi era, called for poems. From 306 to 309, four poems on white dew stand together under the headnote "When, in the Engi era, the emperor called for poems."
The poet, called "Tsurayuki," is Ki no Tsurayuki. A son of Ki no Mochiyuki, he was the leading compiler of the Kokin Wakashū and wrote its kana preface. He served as governor of Tosa among other posts, is known as the author of the Tosa Diary, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

In the first line, "sa" is a prefix: "of the stag."
The second line, "tachinarasu ono no," means "of the meadow trodden down," and has an extra syllable. It sings of the same scene as "shika tachinarasu nobe no akihagi" in 298 of this book.
The third line, "akihagi ni," means "on the autumn bush clover."
In the fourth line, "ru" is the attributive form of the continuative auxiliary "ri": "the white dew that lies there." The first four lines present the dew as something that vanishes.
In the last line, "beshi" is a conjectural auxiliary: "I too must surely vanish."
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Waga yado no obana ga ue no shiratsuyu o ketazute tama ni nuku mono ni moga
Next Poem: Aki no no no kusa wa ito to mo mienaku ni oku shiratsuyu o tama to nukuran