Numamizu ni shigeru makomo no wakarenu o sakihedatetaru kakitsubata kana

沼水に茂る真菰のわかれぬを
咲き隔てたる杜若かな

Roma-ji: Numamizu ni shigeru makomo no wakarenu o sakihedatetaru kakitsubata kana
English Translation: In the marsh's pools
where the wild rice grows so thick
none can be told apart,
blooming, setting bounds between,
there the irises appear.
Meaning: Where the wild rice grows so thick in the marsh water that one cannot tell it apart, the irises bloom, setting divisions among it.
Commentary: Spring Poems 162

Headnote: "Irises"
The topic is irises. The wild rice growing thick across the marsh is an unbroken expanse of the same green, but irises bloom among it, dividing the green expanse.
The ingenuity lies in seeing the contrast of purple irises dotted among the uniform green of the wild rice as the irises partitioning the reeds. The spring flower poems move from cherries to flowers of the water's edge.

First line, “numamizu ni”: in the marsh water.
Second line, “shigeru makomo no”: the thickly growing wild rice.
Third line, “wakarenu o”: where it cannot be told apart.
Fourth line, “sakihedatetaru”: blooming and dividing it, the irises marking off the green.
Fifth line, “kakitsubata kana”: the irises, closing with the exclamatory kana.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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