Aki no yo o hitori ya nakite akasamashi tomonau mushi no koe nakariseba

秋の夜を独りやなきて明かさまし
ともなふ虫の声なかりせば

Roma-ji: Aki no yo o hitori ya nakite akasamashi tomonau mushi no koe nakariseba
English Translation: Through the autumn night
would I have wept on alone
till the break of day,
were there not these insect voices
crying as my company?
Meaning: Would I have wept alone through the autumn night until dawn, if there were not these insect voices crying along with me?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 451

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed poems on insects"
This is the seventh poem in the insect series. The poet would have wept alone through the long autumn night, had there not been the voices of insects crying along with him. He sees the insects' voices as friends who share the loneliness of a night spent in tears.
Naki plays on naku, to weep, and naku, for insects to cry, laying the weeping poet over the crying insects. Where the preceding poem wished to ask the insects their hearts, this one sees them as friends who weep along with him.

First line, “aki no yo o”: the long autumn night.
Second line, “hitori ya nakite”: naki is a pivot word joining naku, for a person to weep, and naku, for insects to cry; ya is a question particle, weeping alone.
Third line, “akasamashi”: mashi expresses supposition contrary to fact, would I have passed the night; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “tomonau mushi no”: of the insects keeping me company.
Fifth line, “koe nakariseba”: if there had been no voices, the condition answering the third line, placed afterward by inversion.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
Prev Poem: Nobe ni naku mushi mo ya mono wa kanashiki ni kotaemashikaba toite kikamashi
Next Poem: Aki no yo ni koe mo yasumazu naku mushi o tsuyu madoromade kikiakasu kana