Yūsare ya tama oku tsuyu no kozasafu ni koe hatsu narasu kirigirisu kana

夕されや玉置く露の小笹生に
声はつならすきりぎりすかな

Roma-ji: Yūsare ya tama oku tsuyu no kozasafu ni koe hatsu narasu kirigirisu kana
English Translation: Evening has come on:
in the bamboo grass where dew
lies like scattered jewels,
how it sounds its first-heard voice,
the cricket singing there.
Meaning: Evening has come; in the low bamboo grass where dew lies like jewels, the cricket sounds its first song of the season.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 445

Headnote: "When I composed poems on insects"
The headnote tells us this was composed when the poet wrote poems on insects. From here to 458, fourteen poems on insects follow under the same headnote. Evening has come, and in the low bamboo grass where dew lies like jewels, the cricket begins to sound its first song of the autumn. Catching the first insect voice heard among the evening dew and bamboo grass, the poem begins the insect series.
After the insects crying in an old friend's garden in the preceding poem, the series on the insects themselves begins here. Starting from the first song, it traces the deepening autumn to the weakening voices of the insects.

First line, “yūsare ya”: yūsareba means when evening comes, and here ya is added in exclamation, evening has come; the poem breaks after the first line.
Second line, “tama oku tsuyu no”: of the dew lying like jewels.
Third line, “kozasafu ni”: kozasafu is a place where low bamboo grass grows.
Fourth line, “koe hatsu narasu”: understood as sounding its first voice of the season.
Fifth line, “kirigirisu kana”: the cricket, closing with kana.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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