Wakana tsumu kyō ni hatsune no ainureba matsu ni ya hito no kokoro hikuran

若菜摘む今日に初子のあひぬれば
まつにや人の心ひくらん

Roma-ji: Wakana tsumu kyō ni hatsune no ainureba matsu ni ya hito no kokoro hikuran
English Translation: On this day we pick
the young herbs, the first Rat Day
falls together too:
is your heart now drawn to pines,
drawn to wait for someone, too?
Meaning: Today, when we gather young herbs, the first Day of the Rat has fallen as well. Is your heart drawn, then, to the pines rather than the herbs, and to waiting for someone?
Commentary: Spring Poems 17

Headnote: "When the gathering of young herbs fell on the first Day of the Rat, sent to someone"
According to the headnote, the poem was sent to someone when the day for gathering young herbs coincided with the first Day of the Rat. Since that day is for pulling pines, the poet suggests that the recipient's heart must be drawn to the pines rather than the herbs, and, playing on matsu as both pine and to wait, asks whether that heart is drawn to waiting for someone.
Turning a coincidence of festivals into nimble wordplay, it is an exchange poem that gently teases the recipient. It stands at the seam of the sequence, where the Rat Day poems give way to poems on young herbs.

First line, “wakana tsumu”: the custom of going out to gather young herbs at the start of spring.
Second line, “kyō ni hatsune no”: on this day, the first Day of the Rat, the first Rat Day of the New Year.
Third line, “ainureba”: since they coincide, the two festivals falling on the same day.
Fourth line, “matsu ni ya hito no”: matsu is a pivot word meaning both the pine pulled on the Day of the Rat and to wait for someone; the interrogative ya forms a kakari-musubi with ran in the fifth line.
Fifth line, “kokoro hikuran”: hiku overlays pulling the young pine with the heart being drawn, closing with the conjectural ran as the poet guesses at the other's feelings.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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