Minahito no inochi o tsuyu ni tatouru wa kusamura goto ni okeba narikeri - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

皆人の命を露にたとふるは
草むらごとに置けばなりけり

Roma-ji: Minahito no inochi o tsuyu ni tatouru wa kusamura goto ni okeba narikeri
English Translation: Why all people say
that human life is like the dew,
I have come to see:
in every clump of grasses
it is laid, as the dead are.
Meaning: The reason everyone likens human life to dew, I now see, is that, like dew, the dead are laid in every clump of grass.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1325

Headnote: "On seeing, in a year when many died of an epidemic, the dead laid out in the fields and thickets"
The poet says that the reason everyone likens life to dew is that it lies in every clump of grass. The headnote shows it was composed in a year when many died of an epidemic, on seeing the dead laid out in fields and thickets. Laying dew settling on grass over the bodies lying in the grass, it sings of the shock of witnessing the ravages of the epidemic, of coming to know the meaning of the old way of likening life to dew.
The author, Sukekiyo, is a person of whom little is known.

First line, "minahito no," means "everyone."
Second line, "inochi o tsuyu ni," means "life to the dew," taking the swiftly vanishing dew as a figure for the fleetingness of life. It shares likening life to dew with the third line of 1286 in this book, "tsuyu yori mo."
Third line, "tatouru wa," means "that they liken."
Fourth line, "kusamura goto ni," means "in every clump of grass," speaking of the dead laid out everywhere.
Final line, "okeba narikeri," means "is because it lies there," layering dew settling on grass and the dead being laid there, with "keri" a sigh of realization.
Author: Sukekiyo
Source: Shui Wakashu
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