Tama ni nuku tsuyu wa koborete Musashino no kusa no ha musubu aki no hatsukaze

玉に貫く露はこぼれて武蔵野の
草の葉結ぶ秋の初風

Roma-ji: Tama ni nuku tsuyu wa koborete Musashino no kusa no ha musubu aki no hatsukaze
English Translation: Dew that had been strung
like jewels spills to the ground,
and on Musashi Moor
knotting the leaves of the grass
blows the first wind of autumn.
Meaning: The dew that was strung like jewels spills to the ground, and the first wind of autumn blows across Musashi Moor, knotting the blades of grass together.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 296

Headnote: "When people composed ten autumn poems each"
The headnote tells us this was composed when people wrote ten autumn poems each, and the ten poems up to 305 form the set from that occasion. The dew that lay strung on the grass like jewels spills down, and the first wind of autumn tosses the grass of the wide Musashi Moor as if knotting the blades together. The poem catches the early autumn wind sweeping across the vast moor.
Likening dew to jewels echoes tsuyu no shiratama nukikakete in 280, and here those jewels spill and scatter in the wind. The set of ten begins with the first wind of autumn and goes on to take up the maidenflower, insects, reed grass, deer and the moon in turn.

First line, “tama ni nuku”: likening dew to jewels strung on a thread.
Second line, “tsuyu wa koborete”: the jewel-like dew spills in the wind.
Third line, “Musashino no”: the broad moor of Musashi Province, a famous place sung as a vast plain of grasses.
Fourth line, “kusa no ha musubu”: the wind blowing the grass together as though tying the blades in knots.
Fifth line, “aki no hatsukaze”: ending on a noun, the wind that blows at the beginning of autumn.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
Prev Poem: Yamazato no sotomo no oka no takaki ki ni sozorogamashiki akisemi no koe
Next Poem: Ho ni idete shino no osusuki maneku no ni tawarete tateru ominaeshi kana