Ware nagara oboezu otsuru sode no tsuyu tsuki ni mono omou yogoro henureba

我ながらおぼえず落つる袖の露
月にもの思ふ夜ごろ経ぬれば

Roma-ji: Ware nagara oboezu otsuru sode no tsuyu tsuki ni mono omou yogoro henureba
English Translation: Though it's my own self,
unawares they fall and spill,
the dew upon my sleeve—
for I've passed so many nights
gazing at the moon in thought.
Meaning: Though it is my own self, I hardly know how the dew falls on my sleeves—for many nights now I have brooded beneath the moon.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 272

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "As a poem on the moon"
Because he has spent night after night gazing at the moon in brooding, tears like dew fall onto the poet's sleeves before he knows it. He conveys the depth of the brooding the moon evokes through tears that spill unawares.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on the moon," and the Ruijū and Teika texts give line 2 as oboezu oku ka. Kamo no Mabuchi judged line 2 to be in the manner of later times.

Line 1 means "though it is myself."
Line 2 means "falling before I know it."
Line 3, "the dew on my sleeves," likens tears to dew, and the poem pauses here. Following 191 and 245, it again overlays sleeve-dew with tears.
Line 4, "brooding by the moon," is hypermetric. Whereas the two preceding poems sang of the moon's purity, this one sings of the brooding it calls forth.
Line 5 means "since I have spent many nights," with ba after the evaluative form expressing a cause, and gives last, through inversion, the reason for the tears.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
Prev Poem: Ama no hara furisakemireba tsuki kiyomi aki no yo itaku fukenikeru kana
Next Poem: Omoiidete mukashi o shinobu sode no ue ni arishi ni mo aranu tsuki zo yadoreru