Yomosugara tamoto ni mushi no ne o kakete haraiwazurau sode no shiratsuyu

夜もすがら袂に虫の音をかけて
払ひわづらふ袖の白露

Roma-ji: Yomosugara tamoto ni mushi no ne o kakete haraiwazurau sode no shiratsuyu
English Translation: All the whole night through,
hanging on my sleeves the songs
that the insects sing,
how I struggle to brush off
the white dew upon my sleeves.
Meaning: All night long the insects' voices hang upon my sleeves, and I cannot manage to brush away the white dew gathered there.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 454

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I composed poems on insects"
This is the tenth poem in the insect series. All night long the poet listens to the insects as though their voices hung upon his sleeves, and the white dew they draw onto his sleeves, his tears, he tries to brush away but cannot. Linking insect voices and the dew on the sleeves, it pictures sleeves wet with tears all night.
It echoes 448 and 449, in which the sleeves are wet at the insects' voices. With the voices hung on the sleeves and the dew on the sleeves hard to brush away, the poem layers insect song and tears around the sleeve.

First line, “yomosugara”: all night long.
Second line, “tamoto ni mushi no”: on my sleeves, the insects'.
Third line, “ne o kakete”: hanging their voices on the sleeves, listening to them close by.
Fourth line, “haraiwazurau”: wazurau means to have difficulty doing, unable to brush it away.
Fifth line, “sode no shiratsuyu”: ending on a noun, the white dew on the sleeves, that is, tears.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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