Hakanasa o waga mi no ue ni yosoureba tamoto ni kakaru aki no yūtsuyu - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

はかなさを我が身の上によそふれば
袂にかかる秋の夕露

Roma-ji: Hakanasa o waga mi no ue ni yosoureba tamoto ni kakaru aki no yūtsuyu
English Translation: When I liken it,
the frailty of the dew,
to my own life,
upon my sleeves there falls
the evening dew of autumn
Meaning: When I compare the frailty of the dew to my own life, the autumn evening dew falls upon my sleeves.
Commentary: Book Four Autumn Poems I 264

Headnote: "Composed when presenting a hundred-poem sequence to Retired Emperor Sutoku"
Composed for a hundred-poem sequence presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku. As the poet likens the frailty of dew, so quick to vanish, to her own life, the autumn evening dew falls on her sleeves. Overlaying the frailty of dew with that of life, the poem quietly lays upon the evening dew on her sleeves the tears she sheds for herself.
The author, "Taikenmon'in no Horikawa," was a daughter of Minamoto no Akinaka, head of the Department of Divinities. A lady-in-waiting to Taikenmon'in Fujiwara no Tamako, consort of Emperor Toba, she was one of the leading women poets of the cloistered-rule period and one of the poets of Retired Emperor Sutoku's Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequence.
This poem and the next, 265, are both dew poems from the Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequence. Where the preceding poem, 263, saw dew as the tears of plants, this one sees it as one's own tears.

First line, "hakanasa o": "the frailty," that is, of the quickly vanishing dew.
Second line, "waga mi no ue ni": "to my own life."
Third line, "yosoureba": "yosou" means to liken, in the realized condition with "ba."
Fourth line, "tamoto ni kakaru": "falling on my sleeves," overlaying the dew with tears. "Tamoto yori koso" in 266 and "tamoto ni oku wa" in 267 of this book also speak of dew on sleeves.
Fifth line, "aki no yūtsuyu": ends on a noun, the dew that settles on autumn evenings, presenting at last the dew that symbolizes frailty.
Author: Taikenmon-in no Horikawa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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