Itazura ni shioruru sode o asatsuyu ni kaeru tamoto to omowamashikaba - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いたづらにしをるる袖を朝露に
帰る袂と思はましかば

Roma-ji: Itazura ni shioruru sode o asatsuyu ni kaeru tamoto to omowamashikaba
English Translation: These sleeves that droop
so uselessly, soaked with tears,
if I could but think them
sleeves of one returning home
through the dew at break of day
Meaning: If only I could think of these sleeves, drooping and soaked for nothing, as the sleeves of one going home through the morning dew after a night of love.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 767

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a love poem"
Like the preceding poem, it is composed as a love poem. If only I could think of my sleeves, drooping wet in vain, he says, as the sleeves of one going home through the morning dew. The sleeves of one returning through the dew after a night with a lover grow wet too, but his only grow wet with tears without any meeting, and he wishes he could at least think of them as sleeves soaked on the way home from a lovers' parting, a lament of love unfulfilled.
The author, "the monk Shun'e," was the son of Minamoto no Toshiyori. A monk of Tōdai-ji, he named his own quarters in Shirakawa the Karin'en and gathered poets there for poetry meetings. He was the poetry teacher of Kamo no Chōmei and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Following 765 and 766, it sings of the time near daybreak, and it also echoes the "kaeru" of 749. This book has many poems on wet sleeves, but this one is new in trying to see the wet sleeve as that of one returning after a meeting.

First line, "itazura ni": "in vain, to no purpose," implying "without ever meeting."
Second line, "shioruru sode o": "shioru" is to droop limply from wetness, "these sleeves drooping with tears."
Third line, "asatsuyu ni": "through the morning dew," leading to "kaeru" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "kaeru tamoto to": "as the sleeves of one going home from a lover," the way home after a lovers' parting at dawn. It echoes "kaeruran" in the third line of 749 in singing of returning from a lover.
Fifth line, "omowamashikaba": "mashikaba" is a counterfactual condition, "if only I could think so," with "how good it would be" left unsaid.
Author: Shun'e
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Yomosugara mono omou koro wa akeyaranu neya no hima sae tsurenakarikeri
Next Poem: Koi yue wa samo aranu hito zo urameshiki ware yoso naraba towamashi mono o