Samidare ni oda no sanae ya ika naran aze no ukitsuchi araikosarete

五月雨に小田の早苗やいかならん
畦のうき土洗ひ越されて

Roma-ji: Samidare ni oda no sanae ya ika naran aze no ukitsuchi araikosarete
English Translation: In the summer rain,
how fare the young rice plants now
in the little fields,
with the soft mud of the ridges
washed away beneath the flood?
Meaning: In these early summer rains, how are the young rice plants in the fields faring, with the soft mud of the ridges washed over and away?
Commentary: Summer Poems 213

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Early summer rains"
This is the seventh of the early summer rain poems. The fields are overflowing in the endless rain, and even the soft earth of the ridges between them is being washed away. How are the newly planted seedlings faring, the poet wonders. Out of concern for the work of the farmers, he captures the force of the rains.
Where the earlier poems treated scenes close at hand such as paths and drops from the eaves, this one turns to the seedlings in the fields, thinking of how the long rains affect people's lives.

First line, “samidare ni”: because of the early summer rains.
Second line, “oda no sanae ya”: oda is a rice field and sanae the young rice seedlings just planted; ya is an interrogative particle.
Third line, “ika naran”: ya is answered by the attributive n, how are they faring, expressing concern; the poem breaks after the third line and the lower verse is inverted.
Fourth line, “aze no ukitsuchi”: ukitsuchi is muddy earth softened with water.
Fifth line, “araikosarete”: the water spilling over the ridges and washing the earth away, giving the reason for the concern in the third line afterwards.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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