Sayonaka ni omoeba kanashi Michinoku no Asaka no numa ni tabine shinikeri - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

小夜中に思へば悲し陸奥の
安積の沼に旅寝しにけり

Roma-ji: Sayonaka ni omoeba kanashi Michinoku no Asaka no numa ni tabine shinikeri
English Translation: In the dead of night
when I think of it, how sad:
in Michinoku
by the Asaka marshes
I have lain down far from home
Meaning: How sad it is when I think of it in the dead of night: here I am, sleeping on a journey by the marshes of Asaka in far Michinoku.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 554

How sad, the poet says, when he thinks of it in the middle of the night: he has lain down to sleep on a journey beside the marshes of Asaka in far Michinoku. The loneliness and sorrow of sleeping in the land of Michinoku far from the capital are expressed as thoughts in the depth of night.
The Asaka marshes are a famous place in Michinoku, known for the hanakatsumi flower.
The author, Moroyori, is Minamoto no Moroyori. A son of the Minister of the Left Minamoto no Toshifusa, he rose to Major Counselor and was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences.

First line, 'sayonaka ni', means in the middle of the night, sa being a prefix that adjusts the rhythm.
Second line, 'omoeba kanashi', means when I think of it, how sad, ending in the final form of the adjective; the poem breaks after the second line.
Third line, 'Michinoku no', means of Michinoku, showing that it is a land far from the capital.
Fourth line, 'Asaka no numa ni', means at the marshes of Asaka, a famous place in Michinoku.
Final line, 'tabine shinikeri', means I have slept on a journey, the perfective nu followed by the exclamatory keri, closing on the realization of being in a distant land.
Author: Minamoto no Moroyori
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
Prev Poem: Utatane no yume nakariseba wakarenishi mukashi no hito o mata mo mimashi ya
Next Poem: Ie no kaze fukanu mono yue Hazukashi no mori no koto no ha chirashihatetsuru