Sasa no ha o yūgure nagara orishikeba tama chiru tabi no kusamakura kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

笹の葉を夕暮ながら折り敷けば
玉散る旅の草枕かな

Roma-ji: Sasa no ha o yūgure nagara orishikeba tama chiru tabi no kusamakura kana
English Translation: When I break and spread
leaves of bamboo grass for my bed
while dusk still lingers,
the jewels scatter all around
my pillow of grass on the road
Meaning: When I break bamboo grass and spread it for my bed while dusk still lingers, jewels of dew scatter about my pillow of grass on the journey.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 514

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the theme of travel when he called for a hundred-poem sequence"
A poem on the topic of travel from the Kyūan Hyakushu. When I break bamboo grass and spread it for my bed at dusk, jewels scatter about my pillow of grass on the road, the poet says. Seeing the dew on the bed of bamboo leaves in the open as scattering jewels, she expresses the loneliness of sleeping on the road, with an echo of tears.
The author, "Aki of the same Retired Empress," is Taikenmon'in no Aki, a lady-in-waiting who, like the author of the preceding poem, served Taikenmon'in, and one of the poets of the Kyūan Hyakushu.
It is the sixth in the sequence of travel poems from the Kyūan Hyakushu. The second line of the main text reads "yūgure nagara," which does not match the reading line, "yūtsuyu nagara." Here the main text is followed. By the reading line, the poet spreads the bamboo leaves with the evening dew still on them, which answers well to "tama chiru" in the fourth line.

First line, "sasa no ha o": "the bamboo grass," spread for a bed on the road.
Second line, "yūgure nagara": "nagara" means "just as it is," so "while it is still dusk."
Third line, "orishikeba": "when I break and spread them," with "ba" after the perfective form giving a fixed condition. The word "orishiku" also appears in 500 and 544 of this book.
Fourth line, "tama chiru tabi no": "tama" are the jewels of dew on the bamboo leaves, also suggesting the tears of travel.
Fifth line, "kusamakura kana": "kusamakura" is a pillow of bound grass, sleep on the road, and "kana" is exclamatory.
Author: Taikenmon-in no Aki
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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