Yo no hodo ni karisomebito ya kitariken Yodo no mikomo no kesa midaretaru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夜のほどにかりそめ人や来たりけん
淀の真菰のけさみだれたる

Roma-ji: Yo no hodo ni karisomebito ya kitariken Yodo no mikomo no kesa midaretaru
English Translation: In the course of night
has some passing visitor
come here, I wonder?
The wild rice of Yodo
lies all in disarray this morning
Meaning: Did some passing visitor come here in the night? This morning the wild rice by the waters of Yodo lies all in disarray.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1169

Headnote: "Composed on the early summer rains"
This is a hidden-name poem, concealing the word "samidare," the early summer rains, within "kesa midaretaru" in the fifth line. Did some passing visitor come in the night? The wild rice of Yodo lies in disarray this morning, she says. On the surface, seeing the wild rice by the waters of Yodo trampled, she wonders whether someone stopped by in the night, and in finding traces of a visit in the tangled reeds she lets the air of a love affair drift through the poem.
The author, "Izumi Shikibu," was the daughter of Ōe no Masamune, governor of Echizen. She excelled in passionate love poetry and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets of the middle ages.
From this poem through 1179 in this book, hidden-name poems are lined up. In this device the name of a thing is hidden within a poem without regard to its meaning, and this is the first poem of the series.

First line, "yo no hodo ni": "in the course of the night."
Second line, "karisomebito ya": "karisomebito" is someone who stopped by for a passing moment, and "kari" echoes the cutting of the wild rice. "Ya" is an interrogative binding particle closing with "ken" in the third line.
Third line, "kitariken": "ken," the attributive of the conjectural past "kemu," closes the binding, "did someone come?" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "Yodo no mikomo no": Yodo is a poetic place in Yamashiro, the waterside along the Yodo River. "Makomo," wild rice, grows by the water and was cut to make mats.
Fifth line, "kesa midaretaru": "lies in disarray this morning," with "taru" the attributive of the continuative "tari." Within "kesa midare" lies hidden the word "samidare."
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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