Aware ni mo misao ni moyuru hotaru kana koe tatetsubeki kono yo to omou ni - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あはれにも操に燃ゆる蛍かな
声立てつべきこの世と思ふに

Roma-ji: Aware ni mo misao ni moyuru hotaru kana koe tatetsubeki kono yo to omou ni
English Translation: How moving it is,
the firefly that burns on
in steadfast silence,
in a world where I would think
one might well cry out aloud
Meaning: How moving the firefly is, burning on in steadfast silence, in a world where I would think one might well cry out aloud.
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 202

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Though this world is painful enough, the poet thinks, to make one cry aloud, the firefly burns without a sound, enduring in silence, and the sight moves him deeply. In the firefly glowing without a voice he finds a heart that bears its feelings within, and overlays it with his own heart weighed down by the sorrows of the world.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A central poet of Emperor Horikawa's circle, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at Retired Emperor Shirakawa's command and wrote the treatise Toshiyori Zuinō. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The conceit of seeing hidden longing in a firefly that burns without a sound has precedents such as the Goshūi Wakashū poem, "The firefly that burns with longing and makes no sound is more moving than the insects that cry."

First line, "aware ni mo": "how movingly."
Second line, "misao ni moyuru": "misao" is steadfastness, keeping one's heart unchanged, enduring in silence, describing the firefly burning on without a sound.
Third line, "hotaru kana": the exclamatory "kana," and the poem pauses here. Like the preceding poem, 201, which ends with "kuru hotaru kana," it exclaims over the firefly with "kana."
Fourth line, "koe tatetsubeki": "tsubeki" means "might well," so "where one might well cry out."
Fifth line, "kono yo to omou ni": "ni" is concessive: "though I think it such a world." It is inverted with the third line.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Mukashi waga atsumeshi mono o omoiidete minaregao ni mo kuru hotaru kana
Next Poem: Asari seshi mizu no misabi ni tojirarete hishi no ukiha ni kawazu naku nari