Waga norishi koto o ushi to ya kieniken kusaba ni kakaru tsuyu no inochi wa - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我が乗りし事をうしとや消えにけん
草葉にかかる露の命は

Roma-ji: Waga norishi koto o ushi to ya kieniken kusaba ni kakaru tsuyu no inochi wa
English Translation: Was it that I rode
that made it find life a burden,
so it faded away—
that life like dew that clings
upon the blades of grass
Meaning: Was it because I rode it that it found life too sad to bear and faded away—that life as fleeting as dew clinging to the blades of grass?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems II 1130

Headnote: "When I had borrowed someone's ox and it died, I sent word."
The poet wonders whether the life, fleeting as dew on grass, faded away because it found her riding it a burden. Apologizing to the owner for the death of the borrowed ox, she lets "ushi" mean both ox and sorrowful, expressing pity for a fleeting life within a play of wit.
According to the headnote, she had borrowed someone's ox, and when it died she sent this to the owner.
The poet, Kan'in, appears in the original as "Kan'in no Go" and was a palace lady of the Engi era. Her dates and birth are unknown, and her name seems to come from the Kan'in, the old mansion of Fujiwara no Fuyutsugu.

The first line, "Waga norishi," means "that I rode," with "shi" the attributive of the past "ki."
The second line, "koto o ushi to ya," means "finding it a burden," with "ushi" joining ox and "ushi," sorrowful. "Ya" is an interrogative binding particle closed by the attributive "ken" in the third line.
The third line, "kieniken," means "did it fade away," with "ken" conjecture about a past cause, closing the "ya" of the second line. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "kusaba ni kakaru," means "clinging to the blades of grass," leading to the image of dew.
The last line, "tsuyu no inochi wa," means "that life like dew," giving the subject in inverted order after the pause at the third line. "Kie," to fade, and "tsuyu," dew, are related words.
Author: Kan'in
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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