Wakekaneshi sode ni tsuyu oba todomeokite shimo ni kuchinuru Mano no hagihara

分けかねし袖に露をば留め置きて
霜に朽ちぬる真野の萩原

Roma-ji: Wakekaneshi sode ni tsuyu oba todomeokite shimo ni kuchinuru Mano no hagihara
English Translation: Hard to make my way,
upon my sleeves the dew-drops
it left lingering,
now withered in the frost it lies,
the bush-clover field of Mano.
Meaning: The bush-clover field of Mano, once so thick I could barely push through it, left its dew lingering on my sleeves, while it has itself withered away in the frost.
Commentary: Winter Poems 507

Headnote: "Grasses on a withered moor"
The topic is grasses on a withered moor, and this is the first of three poems on it. The bush-clover field of Mano, so thick in autumn that it was hard to push through, has left its dew lingering on the sleeves of the one who passed, while it has itself withered away in the frost. The autumn dew and the winter frost mark the field's prime and its decline.
Set in the bush-clover field of Mano, a famous place in poetry, the poem lays the memory of sleeves wet from pushing through the clover in autumn over the present field, rotted in the winter frost.

First line, “wakekaneshi”: hard to push through, with shi the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, the autumn field once too thick to enter.
Second line, “sode ni tsuyu oba”: oba is the particle o with the topic particle wa, singling out the dew left on the sleeves.
Third line, “todomeokite”: leaving it behind, the clover leaving only dew on the sleeves.
Fourth line, “shimo ni kuchinuru”: kuchu is to rot or decay, and nuru is the attributive of the perfective.
Fifth line, “Mano no hagihara”: the poem ends on a noun, the bush-clover field of Mano, answering the topic.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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