Hagi no hana kuregure made mo aritsuru ga tsuki idete miru ni naki wa kanashiki

萩の花くれぐれまでもありつるが
月出でて見るになきは悲しき

Roma-ji: Hagi no hana kuregure made mo aritsuru ga tsuki idete miru ni naki wa kanashiki
English Translation: The bush clover bloom
was still there, right up until
dusk was falling fast—
yet when the moon came out to see,
how sad that it was gone.
Meaning: The bush clover was blooming right up till dusk, yet when I looked after the moon rose, it was gone—how sad.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 210

Headnote: "Composed when, looking after the moon had risen at the few bush clover blossoms left in the garden, I could not see them, perhaps because they had all scattered"
Looking after moonrise at the few bush clover blossoms left in his garden, the poet could see no flowers, as though they had all scattered. Blossoms that were surely there at dusk are gone when viewed by moonlight, and he sings with surprise and sorrow of a loss within the briefest span of time.
The Ruijū text's headnote differs slightly. The Ruijū and Teika texts give the last line as naki ga hakanasa, and because this variant appears alongside the text in the source consulted, it has been taken as naki wa kanashiki in light of the note.

Line 1, "the bush clover blossoms," refers to the few left in the garden as described in the headnote.
Line 2, kuregure made mo, means "even until dusk."
Line 3: tsuru is the attributive of the perfective tsu, "though they were surely there."
Line 4, "when I looked after the moon came out," is hypermetric.
Line 5 means "how sad that they are gone," ending in the attributive form to carry exclamation. The clover the poet would turn back to see in the preceding poem, 209, is here already lost when he comes to look.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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