Mase no uchi ni yoru oku tsuyu ya ika naramu nuretsutsu kiku no utsuroinikeru

ませの内に夜置く露やいかならむ
濡れつつ菊の移ろひにける

Roma-ji: Mase no uchi ni yoru oku tsuyu ya ika naramu nuretsutsu kiku no utsuroinikeru
English Translation: Within the low fence,
what can it be, the dew
that lies there at night?
Wet again and wet again,
the chrysanthemums have turned.
Meaning: What can it be, the dew that settles at night inside the low fence? Soaked again and again, the chrysanthemums have changed their color.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 294

Headnote: "On chrysanthemums"
Seeing the chrysanthemums within his fence changed in color after being soaked night after night by dew, the poet wonders what that night dew can be. Marveling at the power of night dew to change a flower's color, he portrays the turning of chrysanthemums in late autumn.
The Ruijū text places this poem among "poems found in another manuscript and in printed editions." Chrysanthemums whose color had changed under frost or dew were also admired and sung as utsuroigiku, "turning chrysanthemums."

Line 1, "within the low fence," is hypermetric; like the magaki of the two preceding poems, it sings of chrysanthemums by a fence.
Line 2: ya is an interrogative binding particle.
Line 3 means "what can it be?", concluding ya with the attributive of the conjectural mu; the poem pauses here.
Line 4: tsutsu marks repetition and continuation, "being wet again and again," taking up the chrysanthemums wet under the moon and in the rain of the two preceding poems.
Line 5 means "have changed their color," ending in the attributive form with exclamation. It closes the three chrysanthemum poems with chrysanthemums whose color has turned.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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