Kiku mama ni katashiku sode no nururu kana shika no koe ni wa tsuyu ya souran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

聞くままにかたしく袖の濡るるかな
鹿の声には露や添ふらん

Roma-ji: Kiku mama ni katashiku sode no nururu kana shika no koe ni wa tsuyu ya souran
English Translation: As I listen on,
the sleeve I spread to sleep alone
how wet it becomes:
with the crying of the deer
does the dew come along?
Meaning: As I listen, the sleeve I spread to sleep alone grows wet. Does the deer's cry bring dew along with it?
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 318

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on the deer"
Composed as a poem on the deer. As he listens to the deer's voice, the poet says, the sleeve he spreads to sleep alone grows wet: does dew come carried with the deer's voice? What wets the sleeve is really his own tears, but by blaming it on dew borne with the deer's voice, he conveys his sorrow without naming it.
The author, "Ukyō no Daibu Sueyoshi," is Fujiwara no Sueyoshi, a courtier of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods who served as Master of the Western Capital Office among other posts.
This is the second of a run of nine poems, 317 through 325, composed as "poems on the deer."

First line, "kiku mama ni": "mama ni" means "as," binding the deer's voice to the wetting of the sleeve.
Second line, "katashiku sode no": "katashiku" is to spread only one's own sleeve and sleep alone, showing the loneliness of sleeping by oneself.
Third line, "nururu kana": "kana" is exclamatory, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "shika no koe ni wa": "in the deer's voice," seeking in the voice the reason the sleeve grows wet.
Fifth line, "tsuyu ya souran": the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran," "does dew come with it?", likening tears to dew.
Author: Fujiwara no Sueyoshi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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