Kohagi saku yamada no kuro no mushi no ne ni io moru hito ya sode nurasuran

小萩咲く山田のくろの虫の音に
庵守る人や袖濡らすらん

Roma-ji: Kohagi saku yamada no kuro no mushi no ne ni io moru hito ya sode nurasuran
English Translation: Where the clover blooms
on the ridges of hill fields,
at the insects' cries,
might the keeper of the hut
be wetting his sleeves with tears?
Meaning: At the insects' cries along the ridges of the hillside paddies where the little bush clover blooms, could the man who keeps watch from the hut be wetting his sleeves with tears?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 462

Headnote: "Hearing insects from a hut in the paddies"
The topic is hearing insects from a watch hut in the paddies. Hearing the insects crying on the ridges of the hillside paddies where the little bush clover blooms, the man who stays in the hut to guard the field may be wetting his sleeves with tears in his loneliness. Through the insect voices the poet imagines the solitude of the one keeping watch over the paddy.
Like 440, in which the poet is woken by a deer near the hut in the hillside paddy, it is set at a watch hut in the fields, and here the insects take the place of the deer.

First line, “kohagi saku”: where the little bush clover blooms, with ko as a prefix.
Second line, “yamada no kuro no”: kuro is the raised ridge of earth between paddies.
Third line, “mushi no ne ni”: at the insects' cries.
Fourth line, “io moru hito ya”: the one who guards the field from the hut; ya is a question particle answering ran in the last line.
Fifth line, “sode nurasuran”: ran is present conjecture in the attributive form required by ya, could he be wetting his sleeves.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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