Ame fureba oda no masurao itoma are ya nawashiromizu o sora ni makasete

English Translation

When the rain comes down
the strong men of the rice fields
have their leisure, then
for the seedbed's water they
leave to the sky to look to

Meaning

Since the rain is falling, the men of the fields must have time on their hands: they have left the water of the seedbeds to the sky.

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 67

Headnote: composed on the theme of seedbeds in the rain, at the residence of Kiyosuke.
The fourth poem in the run on spring rain turns to work in the fields. Because the rain brings the water, the farmers must be idle: so the poem supposes. The headnote places it at Fujiwara no Kiyosuke's house, on the assigned topic of seedbeds in rain. Kiyosuke, the poet of the thirty-fourth piece, gathered poets at his own residence for such meetings.
The Monk Shomyo was a late Heian monk and poet, an associate of Kiyosuke.
The time is the season of spring rain; the place is a field with seedbeds, the flooded beds in which rice seedlings are raised.
The occasion was the set topic.

The first line gives a settled condition: because the rain falls.
The word in the second line, with a rhythmic prefix on the word for field, means a strong man, and here a farmer.
An interrogative particle in the third line asks whether they have time to spare; the concessive form reasons toward a cause.
The fourth and fifth lines say that the water has been left to the sky. What men usually draw in themselves is being supplied by the rain instead.
Among poems chiefly about blossom and moon, this one takes farm work for its subject and stands out for it. Its centre is the exchange of human labour for the working of nature.

Author

The Monk Shomyo

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other