Ōkata no tsuyu ni wa nani no naru naran tamoto ni oku wa namida narikeri

おほかたの露には何のなるならん
袂に置くは涙なりけり

Roma-ji: Ōkata no tsuyu ni wa nani no naru naran tamoto ni oku wa namida narikeri
English Translation: As for common dew,
what might it be that it was
before it became?
On my sleeves, the dew that lies
was my tears, I see at last.
Meaning: The common dew that lies everywhere, what can it be that has turned into it? The dew that lies upon my sleeves, I find, is my own tears.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 294

Headnote: "On dew"
This poem was composed on the topic of dew. What can the ordinary dew that settles on fields and grasses have turned from? The dew on the poet's sleeves, he finds, has come from his tears. Drawing on the convention of seeing the dew on sleeves as tears, the poem presents it anew as a discovery, in the form of question and answer.
It was included in the Senzai Wakashū, in the first book of autumn poems. The opening ōkata no and the contrast of dew and tears also link with 279, which says the maidenflower droops with the common dew of the moor yet bears none of the poet's tears.

First line, “ōkata no”: common, ordinary, modifying tsuyu in the second line and contrasted with the dew on the sleeves in the fourth line.
Second line, “tsuyu ni wa nani no”: what it is in the dew, questioning what the dew really is.
Third line, “naru naran”: what has it become from; naran joins the assertive nari and the conjectural mu. The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “tamoto ni oku wa”: the dew lying on my sleeves, singled out by wa to contrast with the common dew of the first line.
Fifth line, “namida narikeri”: keri expresses realization, closing on the discovery that the dew on the sleeves was tears.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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