Practise the thinking. Keep the judgement.
白露に
Fun’ya no Asayasu · 文屋朝康
白露に
風の吹きしく
秋の野は
つらぬきとめぬ
玉ぞ散りける
Historical kana
しらつゆに
かぜのふきしく
あきののは
つらぬきとめぬ
たまぞちりける
Original English translation
Across the autumn field the wind blows over white dew; pearls, never threaded together, scatter everywhere.
History and context
Asayasu’s poem appears in the Gosen autumn sequence. Dew was a familiar poetic image for beauty and transience; here its movement is imagined through precious objects.
Imagery and wordplay
Dewdrops become loose pearls. The absence of a thread explains why the wind can scatter them.
Gosenshū · 後撰集秋中308
Japanese text and historical kana follow the linked Wikisource transcription. Classical poems can have variant spellings and wording in different anthologies. The source anthology reference identifies the version represented in this collection, not necessarily its earliest surviving text. English prose translations and reading notes are original interpretations; some wordplay permits more than one reading.