Natsugoromo susono no hara o wakeyukeba oritagaetaru hagi ga hanazuri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夏衣すそのの原を分け行けば
折りたがへたる萩が花摺り

Roma-ji: Natsugoromo susono no hara o wakeyukeba oritagaetaru hagi ga hanazuri
English Translation: In my summer robe,
as I push through the meadow
on the mountain's skirts,
bush clover blooms ahead of time
and prints its flowers on me
Meaning: As I push through the meadow on the mountain's skirts in my summer robe, bush clover that has mistaken its season prints its flowers on the cloth.
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 219

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Flowering Plants Come Before Autumn'"
Composed on the topic "Flowering Plants Come Before Autumn." Pushing through a meadow at the foot of a mountain in his summer robe, the poet finds that bush clover, mistaking its season and blooming ahead of autumn, has brushed his robe and printed its flowers on it. Pivoting on "susono," both the "hem" of a robe and the "skirts" of a mountain, and joining summer and autumn in the image of bush-clover prints on a summer robe, the poem portrays flowers blooming before autumn arrives.
The author, "Priest Kenshō," was a monk adopted as a nominal son by Fujiwara no Akisuke. Heir to the poetic learning of the Rokujō Fujiwara house, he was a scholar of poetry who wrote commentaries such as the Shūchūshō.

First line, "natsugoromo": light robes worn in summer. It is the same opening as the book's first poem, 136, so that the summer robe put on at the change of clothing at the book's start is dyed by autumn flowers near its end.
Second line, "susono no hara o": "susono" is a pivot word for the "hem" of a robe and the mountain's "skirts," and is an associated word with "robe."
Third line, "wakeyukeba": "as I push my way through the grasses."
Fourth line, "oritagaetaru": "having mistaken its season," meaning that bush clover, an autumn flower, has bloomed in summer.
Fifth line, "hagi ga hanazuri": ends on a noun, the pattern made by rubbing bush-clover flowers onto cloth. The pairing of autumn's bush-clover color on a summer robe expresses the topic "before autumn." Where the preceding poem, 218, spoke of bush clover not yet in bloom, this one tells of bush clover blooming early, forming a contrast.
Author: Kenshō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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