Kusa no ha no nabiku mo matazu tsuyu no mi no okidokoro naku nageku koro kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

草の葉のなびくも待たず露の身の
置きどころなく嘆くころかな

Roma-ji: Kusa no ha no nabiku mo matazu tsuyu no mi no okidokoro naku nageku koro kana
English Translation: Without even waiting
for the grass blades to bend low,
this body like dew
has no place left to settle,
and these are days of grieving
Meaning: Without even waiting for the grass blades to bend in the wind, I, frail as the dew, have nowhere left to settle, and these days I spend in grief.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 588

Without waiting even for the grass blades to bend in the wind and shed their dew, the poet says, she, frail as dew, has no place left to settle and spends these days in grief. Likening herself to dew on grass, she expresses the grief of a fragile life with nothing to rely on and no place to rest.
Linking related words such as dew and oki, settling, the poem overlays the frailty of dew on grass blades with the grief of having nowhere to turn.

First line, 'kusa no ha no', means the blades of grass.
Second line, 'nabiku mo matazu', means without waiting for them to bend, that is, before the wind blows and the dew spills.
Third line, 'tsuyu no mi no', means of this body frail as dew, tied to the grass blades in the first line.
Fourth line, 'okidokoro naku', means with no place to settle, oki being a related word to the settling of dew in the third line.
Final line, 'nageku koro kana', means these days of grieving, closing with the exclamatory kana.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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