Kurenu meri kyō machitsukete tanabata wa ureshiki ni mo ya tsuyu koboruran

暮れぬめり今日待ちつけて七夕は
うれしきにもや露こぼるらん

Roma-ji: Kurenu meri kyō machitsukete tanabata wa ureshiki ni mo ya tsuyu koboruran
English Translation: The day has ended:
having waited for this day,
the Weaver Maiden,
might she now from very joy
be letting fall drops of dew?
Meaning: The day seems to have darkened. Having waited at last for this day, is the Weaver Maiden letting fall dewdrops of tears, even out of joy?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 259

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Tanabata"
This is the second poem in the Tanabata sequence. The day of the festival seems to be ending; having at last reached the day she has waited for all year, the Weaver Maiden may be shedding drops of dew, tears of joy. The device lies in taking the dew as tears not of sorrow but of happiness.
Where the preceding poem spoke of the dew in the garden in the morning, this one speaks of dew in the evening sky, moving from earthly dew to the tears of the heavenly weaver, and from morning to evening.

First line, “kurenu meri”: nu is perfective and meri presumptive, it seems to have grown dark; the poem breaks after the first line.
Second line, “kyō machitsukete”: machitsuku is to receive at last what one has waited for, here the one day a year of the meeting. The same verb opens 262.
Third line, “tanabata wa”: tanabata here means the Weaver Maiden star.
Fourth line, “ureshiki ni mo ya”: mo implies not only in sorrow but in joy too, and ya is a question particle answering ran in the last line.
Fifth line, “tsuyu koboruran”: the dew stands for tears and ran is present conjecture, in the attributive form required by ya.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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