Hitori yuku sode yori oku ka okuyama no koke no toboso no michi no yūtsuyu

ひとり行く袖より置くか奥山の
苔のとぼその道の夕露

Roma-ji: Hitori yuku sode yori oku ka okuyama no koke no toboso no michi no yūtsuyu
English Translation: Is it from my sleeves,
as I walk alone, it falls?
Deep within the hills,
on the path to the moss-grown door,
the dew of evening lies.
Meaning: Does it fall from my own sleeves as I walk alone—this evening dew on the path to the moss-grown door, deep in the mountains?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 191

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Autumn thoughts at a mountain dwelling"
Making his way alone along the path to a moss-grown hut deep in the mountains, the poet finds the evening dew wetting his sleeves, and wonders whether that dew is not lying on the path but falling from his own sleeves as tears. He expresses the loneliness of autumn at a mountain dwelling by overlaying dew and tears.
The Ruijū text places this poem in the miscellaneous section.

Line 1, "as I walk alone," shows the solitude of mountain life.
Line 2: ka is interrogative, asking whether the dew falls from the sleeves, that is, whether it is tears, and the poem pauses here. Poem 245 likewise asks of "dew on my sleeves," overlaying sleeve-dew with tears.
Line 3 refers to the deep mountains far from villages.
Line 4, koke no toboso, the moss-grown door of a hut, shows the dwelling of one who has left the world.
Line 5 ends on a noun, giving last, through inversion, the object of the question. Following the preceding poem, 190, it sings of the topic "Autumn thoughts at a mountain dwelling."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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