Tsuyu shigeki yomogi ga naka no mushi no ne o oboroke nite ya hito no tazunen - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

露しげき蓬が中の虫の音を
おぼろけにてや人の尋ねん

Roma-ji: Tsuyu shigeki yomogi ga naka no mushi no ne o oboroke nite ya hito no tazunen
English Translation: The voice of insects
in among the mugwort leaves
heavy with the dew,
would anyone come seeking it
with no more than passing thought?
Meaning: Would anyone come seeking with only an ordinary heart the voice of insects deep in the dew-laden mugwort, the sound of my koto in this neglected house?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 977

Headnote: "Sent in reply when, while I had left Jōtōmon'in's service and gone home for a time, a lady-in-waiting wrote in a letter that she would come to learn the koto from me"
While she was serving Jōtōmon'in Shōshi but had gone home for a while, a lady-in-waiting wrote in passing that she would like to come and learn the koto, and this poem was sent in reply. Would anyone come seeking with an ordinary heart the voice of insects among the dew-laden mugwort, she asks. Modestly likening her dwelling to a neglected house overgrown with mugwort and her playing to the voice of insects, she gently answers that no one would come without a strong purpose.
The author, "Murasaki Shikibu," was the daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoki. She married Fujiwara no Nobutaka and bore Daini no Sanmi, and after her husband's death served Jōtōmon'in Shōshi. She is known as the author of The Tale of Genji and The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu, and a poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Where "kokoro no hodo" in the preceding poem, 976, praises the depth of another's thoughtfulness, "oboroke nite ya" in this poem questions the depth of the visitor's resolve, so that poems concerning the measure of the human heart stand together.

First line, "tsuyu shigeki": "thick with dew."
Second line, "yomogi ga naka no": "amid the overgrown mugwort," expressing a neglected house, a modest description of her own home.
Third line, "mushi no ne o": the voice of insects in the grass, standing for the sound of her koto.
Fourth line, "oboroke nite ya": "oboroke" means ordinary, commonplace. "Ya" is a rhetorical binding particle closing with "n" in the fifth line.
Fifth line, "hito no tazunen": "n" is the attributive of the conjectural "mu," "would anyone come seeking it? Not with an ordinary heart."
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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