Uzura naku furinishi sato no asajiu ni ikuyo no aki no tsuyu ka okikemu

鶉鳴く古りにし里の浅茅生に
幾夜の秋の露か置きけむ

Roma-ji: Uzura naku furinishi sato no asajiu ni ikuyo no aki no tsuyu ka okikemu
English Translation: Where the quails cry out,
in the village grown so old,
on the cogon moor,
for how many autumn nights
has the dew been lying here?
Meaning: In the cogon fields of this old village where quails cry, for how many autumn nights has the dew been settling?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 221

Headnote: "On the spirit of an old village"
The poet wonders through how many autumn nights the dew has settled on the cogon-grass fields of a ruined old village where quails cry. He sings of the years piled up in a village no longer lived in, and of the loneliness of the dew that has gone on settling there.
The Ruijū text places this poem in the miscellaneous section. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle. An old village "where quails cry" recalls the poem of the Fukakusa woman in episode 123 of The Tales of Ise, who says she will become a quail and cry when her village turns to field.

Line 1, "where quails cry," describes quails calling in a wild field, showing the old village's ruin.
Line 2, "the village grown old," is the same phrase as "aging village" in 205.
Line 3, asajiu, is a place where low cogon grass grows, showing the desolation of the land.
Line 4, "of how many autumn nights," shows the accumulation of long years.
Line 5: ka is an interrogative binding particle concluded by the attributive of the past conjectural kemu. Where 185 sang of autumn coming to the dew-soaked dwelling of ruined Fukakusa, this poem sings of it as the piling up of many autumns.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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