Yo o fukami kaerishi sora mo nakarishi o izuku yori oku tsuyu ni nurekemu - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夜を深み帰りし空もなかりしを
いづくより置く露に濡れけむ

Roma-ji: Yo o fukami kaerishi sora mo nakarishi o izuku yori oku tsuyu ni nurekemu
English Translation: So deep was the night
that on my way back I saw
no sky, my heart lost —
from where, then, could it have come,
this dew that has soaked me through
Meaning: The night was so deep that on my way home I saw nothing of the sky, my mind elsewhere; where, then, could the dew have come from that has soaked my sleeves?
Commentary: Book Eight Love Poems II 235

A man who has left his lover while the night is still deep wonders at his wet sleeves as if dew were to blame, while hinting that they are wet with the tears of parting. In asking how dew could have fallen at such an hour, the poem conveys the pain of the morning-after farewell.

The first line, "yo o fukami," combines "o" with an adjective stem and "mi" to mean "because the night was deep."
The second line, "kaerishi sora mo," uses the attributive past "shi" for the time of his return, and "sora" carries both the sky and one's state of mind.
The third line, "nakarishi o," uses the concessive "o": though I saw no sky and my mind was elsewhere.
The fourth line, "izuku yori oku" (from where has it fallen), asks the question against a night too deep for dew to settle.
The final line, "tsuyu ni nurekemu," uses the past conjectural "kemu" to wonder where he got wet, hinting that the dew on his sleeves is the tears of parting. The next poems, 236 and 237, are also morning-after poems of returning from a lover.
Author: Kiyohara no Motosuke
Source: Shika Wakashu
Prev Poem: Waga koi wa aisomete koso masarikere Shikama no kachi no iro naranedomo
Next Poem: Kokoro o ba todomete koso wa kaeritsure ayashi ya nani no kure o matsuramu