Samidare ni hosu hima nakute moshiogusa keburi mo tatenu ura no amabito

五月雨に干す隙なくて藻塩草
煙も立てぬ浦の海人

Roma-ji: Samidare ni hosu hima nakute moshiogusa keburi mo tatenu ura no amabito
English Translation: In the summer rain,
no break to dry the seaweed
for the salt fires,
not a wisp of smoke they raise,
the fisherfolk of the bay.
Meaning: With the early summer rains allowing no time to dry the seaweed for salt, the fisherfolk of the bay cannot even raise the smoke of their salt fires.
Commentary: Summer Poems 215

Headnote: "When fifteen poems on the early summer rains were composed at a certain place, written on behalf of another"
The headnote tells us that this poem was composed on behalf of another when fifteen poems on the early summer rains were written at a certain place, and fifteen poems follow from here. In this first poem, the rains leave no break to dry the seaweed burned for salt, and the fisherfolk of the bay cannot raise the smoke of their salt fires. It depicts the effect of the long rains on life by the sea.
Following 213 and 214 of this book, which treated rice seedlings and abandoned fields, this poem turns to the seashore and captures the fisherfolk whose work is halted by the long rains. The smoke of burning seaweed for salt is often sung of as a feature of the shore, but here its absence conveys the length of the rains.

First line, “samidare ni”: because of the early summer rains.
Second line, “hosu hima nakute”: with no clear spell and no time to dry things.
Third line, “moshiogusa”: seaweed burned to extract salt, first dried and then burned.
Fourth line, “keburi mo tatenu”: not even the smoke of the salt fires can be raised.
Fifth line, “ura no amabito”: the poem ends on a noun, presenting the fisherfolk of the bay unable to work.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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