Natsu no yo no tsuki miru koto ya nakaruran kayaribi tatsuru shizu no fuseya wa

夏の夜の月見ることやなかるらん
蚊遣火立つる賤の伏屋は

Roma-ji: Natsu no yo no tsuki miru koto ya nakaruran kayaribi tatsuru shizu no fuseya wa
English Translation: The summer night's moon,
might they never see it then,
those who raise the smoke
of the fires to drive off gnats
in their low and humble huts?
Meaning: Do those who burn smudge fires against the mosquitoes in their low, humble huts never see the moon of the summer night, I wonder?
Commentary: Summer Poems 241

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
On summer nights the common folk in their small huts burn smudge fires to drive off mosquitoes, and the poet wonders whether, because of the smoke, they never see the lovely moon of the summer night.
Following poems on the brevity of the summer night, the moon of the summer night begins to appear with this poem, and the summer moon is sung of in various places such as the seashore, a spring and a pond in the poems that follow.

First line, “natsu no yo no”: modifying tsuki in the second line.
Second line, “tsuki miru koto ya”: ya is an interrogative particle, answered by ran in the third line.
Third line, “nakaruran”: ya is answered by the attributive ran, wondering whether there is none; the poem breaks after the third line and the lower verse is inverted.
Fourth line, “kayaribi tatsuru”: kayaribi is a smudge fire of smoldering grasses to drive off mosquitoes, its smoke hiding the moon.
Fifth line, “shizu no fuseya wa”: shizu are common folk and fuseya a low, humble hut.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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