Sueba fuku kaze wa nomose ni wataru tomo araku wa wakeji hagi no shitatsuyu

末葉吹く風は野もせにわたるとも
荒くは分けじ萩の下露

Roma-ji: Sueba fuku kaze wa nomose ni wataru tomo araku wa wakeji hagi no shitatsuyu
English Translation: Though the wind that blows
on the leaf tips sweeps across
all the open field,
I will not push roughly through
the dew beneath the clover.
Meaning: Though the wind that blows the tips of the leaves may sweep across the whole moor, I will not push roughly through, so as to spare the dew beneath the bush clover.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 265

Headnote: "A path through the moor"
The topic is a small path through the open fields. Even if the wind that blows the tips of the leaves sweeps across the whole moor, scattering the dew, the poet at least will not force his way roughly through and spill the dew on the lower leaves of the bush clover. The roughness of the wind is set against his own care for the dew.
Following the preceding poem, which regretted wiping away and losing the evening dew on the bush clover, this one resolves to walk the path quietly so as not to scatter the dew, continuing the heart that cherishes it.

First line, “sueba fuku”: sueba are the leaves at the tips of plants.
Second line, “kaze wa nomose ni”: nomose means filling the field so that it seems narrow, all across the moor.
Third line, “wataru tomo”: tomo is a concessive supposition, even if it sweeps across.
Fourth line, “araku wa wakeji”: ji is the negative volitional, I will not push through roughly, stating the poet's own resolve; the poem breaks after the fourth line.
Fifth line, “hagi no shitatsuyu”: ending on a noun, the dew on the lower leaves of the bush clover, the object of wakeji placed afterward by inversion.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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