Sakura chiru yado o kazareru ayame o ba hanashōbu to ya iu bekaruran

桜散る宿を飾れるあやめをば
花菖蒲とや言ふべかるらん

Roma-ji: Sakura chiru yado o kazareru ayame o ba hanashōbu to ya iu bekaruran
English Translation: Where the cherries fall,
adorning the dwelling there,
these iris leaves here:
should they be called flowering
irises now, I wonder?
Meaning: Should these irises adorning the temple lodging where the cherry petals fall be called flowering irises, I wonder?
Commentary: Summer Poems 202

Headnote: "Composed at the place called Chūin on Mount Kōya, where a monk's lodging had irises laid on its eaves and the cherry blossoms falling on them struck me as unusual"
The headnote tells us that at the place called Chūin on Mount Kōya, the poet found it unusual that cherry petals were falling on a monk's lodging whose eaves were laid with irises. Seeing the irises of the fifth day festival scattered with the late cherry petals of Mount Kōya, he jests that these irises with flowers on them should perhaps be called flowering irises.
Behind the poem lies surprise that the cherry, a spring flower in the lowlands, could be seen together with the irises of the Fifth Month deep in the mountains of Kōya. It is a poem of wit that turns the name hanashōbu, flowering iris, into irises bearing cherry blossoms, and the next poem is the reply of a page at the lodging.

First line, “sakura chiru”: cherry petals falling, showing that blossoms lingered into the Fifth Month deep in the mountains of Kōya.
Second line, “yado o kazareru”: yado is the monk's lodging roofed with irises, and ru, the attributive of the continuative ri, gives the sense adorning it.
Third line, “ayame o ba”: singles out the irises laid on the eaves.
Fourth line, “hanashōbu to ya”: turns irises bearing cherry blossoms into the name hanashōbu, flowering iris; ya marks a question.
Fifth line, “iu bekaruran”: ran is conjecture answering ya, closing with a light question whether they ought to be so called.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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