Sato wa arete yado wa kuchinishi ato nare ya asaji ga tsuyu ni matsumushi no naku

里は荒れて宿は朽ちにし跡なれや
浅茅が露に松虫の鳴く

Roma-ji: Sato wa arete yado wa kuchinishi ato nare ya asaji ga tsuyu ni matsumushi no naku
English Translation: The village in ruins,
is it because the house
has rotted, leaving traces?
In the dew on the low reeds
the pine-crickets cry.
Meaning: The village is in ruins; is it because only traces remain of a house rotted away? In the dew on the low reeds the pine crickets cry.
Commentary: Love Poems 553

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love at the old home"
Is it because the village has fallen to ruin and only traces of the rotted house remain that pine crickets cry in the dew on the low reeds? The poet sings of the loneliness of a ruined old home. Using the same last line as the preceding poem, it closes the series on love at the old home.

Line 1 means "the village in ruins," with an extra syllable.
Line 2 means "the house rotted away."
Line 3: ya is interrogative, "is it because these are the traces?"; the poem pauses here.
Line 4 means "in the dew on the low reeds," the same words as line 2 of 511.
Line 5 is the same last line as the preceding poem, the scene moving from the eaves to the dew on the reeds.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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