Akatsuki no shigi no hanegaki shigekeredo nado au koto no madō naruramu

暁の鴫の羽掻きしげけれど
など逢ふことの間遠なるらむ

Roma-ji: Akatsuki no shigi no hanegaki shigekeredo nado au koto no madō naruramu
English Translation: At the break of dawn
the snipe preen their feathers
over and again;
why, then, is our meeting
so far between?
Meaning: At dawn the snipe preen their feathers again and again; why, then, are our meetings so few and far between?
Commentary: Love Poems 502

Headnote: "Love at dawn"
As the snipe preen their feathers again and again at dawn, the poet's sighs are unceasing, yet why are meetings so far between? It draws on the Kokinshū poem in which the snipe's hundred preenings at dawn match the poet's count of nights the lover did not come.
The Ruijū text titles it "On love at dawn."

Line 1 means "at dawn."
Line 2 names the snipe's preening, which in the source poem counts the sighs of nights without the lover.
Line 3 means "though it is frequent," the same word as line 3 of 497.
Line 4: nado is interrogative, concluded by ramu in line 5.
Line 5 means "why so far between," setting the frequency of preening against the rarity of meetings.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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