Mina hito no kokoro no uki wa ayamegusa nishi ni omoi no hikanu narikeri

みな人の心のうきはあやめ草
西に思ひの引かぬなりけり

Roma-ji: Mina hito no kokoro no uki wa ayamegusa nishi ni omoi no hikanu narikeri
English Translation: All men's hearts are sad,
sunk in mire, it seems, because,
like the iris plant,
their thoughts are never drawn up
and pulled toward the west.
Meaning: The reason all people's hearts are so full of sorrow, I see, is that, like irises left in the mire, their thoughts are never drawn toward the Western Paradise.
Commentary: Summer Poems 206

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "In reply to someone who, on the fifth day of the Fifth Month, sent irises to me at a mountain temple, saying they were needed today"
This is the second reply, under the same headnote as the preceding poem, to the person who sent irises. All people's hearts are full of sorrow, the poet says, because their thoughts are not drawn toward the Western Paradise, as irises are pulled up from the mud of the marsh. Drawing on the iris rooted in miry ground, the poem seems to admonish those whose hearts are caught in the world.
Where the preceding poem said that the poet's heart hangs only on the west, this one says that the hearts of others are not drawn westward, contrasting himself with the world to make a reply in two poems.

First line, “mina hito no”: of all people in the world.
Second line, “kokoro no uki wa”: a pivot word, with uki as sorrowful and uki as the mire where irises grow.
Third line, “ayamegusa”: the iris rooted in mud, placed to connect uki in the second line with hikanu in the last.
Fourth line, “nishi ni omoi no”: thoughts turning toward the Western Paradise; like nishi ni nomi in the first line of the preceding poem it names the west, binding the two.
Fifth line, “hikanu narikeri”: hiku joins the pulling up of irises and the drawing of the heart; narikeri expresses the realization that this is how it is.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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