Tabine suru Suma no uraji no sayo chidori koe koso sode no nami wa kakekere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

旅寝する須磨の浦路の小夜千鳥
声こそ袖の波はかけけれ

Roma-ji: Tabine suru Suma no uraji no sayo chidori koe koso sode no nami wa kakekere
English Translation: Plovers of the night
on the shore road of Suma
where I sleep on my way,
it is your voices that send
the waves washing over my sleeves
Meaning: O plovers crying in the night along the shores of Suma where I sleep on my journey, it is your voices that send waves of tears over my sleeves.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 536

Headnote: "Composed as a travel poem when composing a hundred-poem sequence"
Composed on the topic of travel for a hundred-poem sequence. Plovers of the night on the shore of Suma, where I sleep on my journey—it is your cries that send waves over my sleeves, the poet says. Not the waves of the sea but tears drawn out by the plovers' cries soak his sleeves, and the poem conveys the sorrow of a night on the shore of Suma.
The author, "Fujiwara no Ietaka," was the son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Mitsutaka. He studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei and rose to Junior Second Rank and Minister of the Imperial Household. He later became one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The poem by Minamoto no Kanemasa cited for the preceding poem has the guard of Suma wakened by plovers, and the night plovers of Suma here echo it. Where the preceding poem imagines the guard's feelings, in this one the traveler himself weeps at the plovers' cries.

First line, "tabine suru": "where I sleep on my journey," modifying "Suma no uraji" in the second line. Poems 538 and 539 of this book also open with "tabine suru."
Second line, "Suma no uraji no": "uraji" is the road along the bay, the shore.
Third line, "sayo chidori": plovers crying in the night, addressed by the poet. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "koe koso sode no": the emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective "kere" in the last line, "it is your voices, not the sea's waves."
Fifth line, "nami wa kakekere": the "waves" are waves of tears wetting the sleeves, called waves in keeping with the seashore. Like "nami mo kakekeri" in 531 of this book, it uses the conceit of waves washing over the sleeves.
Author: Fujiwara no Ietaka
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Itsu mo kaku ariake no tsuki no akegata wa mono ya kanashiki Suma no sekimori
Next Poem: Kaku shitsutsu tsui ni tomaramu yomogiu no omoishiraruru kusamakura kana