Ori ni aite hito ni waga mi ya hikaremashi Tsukuma no numa no ayame nariseba

折にあひて人に我が身や引かれまし
筑摩の沼のあやめなりせば

Roma-ji: Ori ni aite hito ni waga mi ya hikaremashi Tsukuma no numa no ayame nariseba
English Translation: Meeting with the time,
would I then be drawn by people,
pulled up, root and all,
if I were an iris, one
in the marsh of Tsukuma?
Meaning: If I were an iris in the marsh of Tsukuma, would people pull me up and seek me out, now that the festival season has come?
Commentary: Summer Poems 204

Headnote: "In reply to a message sent to me on a certain occasion, on the fifth day"
The headnote tells us that, for some reason, someone sent the poet a message, and he wrote this reply on the fifth day of the Fifth Month. At the festival, irises are pulled up root and all and prized; if he were an iris of the Tsukuma marsh, he asks, would people pull him up at this season too? He likens himself, withdrawn from the world and neglected by others, to the festival iris.
What the certain occasion was is not clear from the headnote, but the reply bears the date of the festival, and the poet borrows the iris, the emblem of that day, to carry his feelings.

First line, “ori ni aite”: meeting with the proper season, that is, the Tango festival; a line of six syllables.
Second line, “hito ni waga mi ya”: ya is an interrogative particle, answered by mashi in the third line.
Third line, “hikaremashi”: hiku joins the pulling up of festival irises by the roots and being drawn or invited by people; mashi is counterfactual, answering seba in the last line. The poem breaks after the third line and the lower verse is inverted.
Fourth line, “Tsukuma no numa no”: the marsh of Tsukuma, a poetic place in Ōmi known for its irises.
Fifth line, “ayame nariseba”: seba, the irrealis of the past ki with ba, means if I were an iris, supporting the counterfactual of the third line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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