Mizu wakuru Naniwa horie no nakariseba ika ni ka semashi samidare no koro

水分くる難波堀江のなかりせば
いかにかせまし五月雨の頃

Roma-ji: Mizu wakuru Naniwa horie no nakariseba ika ni ka semashi samidare no koro
English Translation: Were there not the cut,
Naniwa's canal that parts
the waters away,
what then could anyone do
in this time of summer rains?
Meaning: If there were no Naniwa canal to divide the waters and carry them off, what could anyone do in this season of early summer rain?
Commentary: Summer Poems 219

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When fifteen poems on the early summer rains were composed at a certain place, written on behalf of another"
This is the fifth of the fifteen poems. The Naniwa canal was dug to divide the waters and carry them away; had it not existed, the poet says, there would be no way to deal with the waters overflowing in the rains. The gratitude for this ancient waterway conveys how much water the rains have brought.
Where the preceding poems told of people struggling with swollen rivers, this one turns to the blessing of the canal that disposes of the waters.

First line, “mizu wakuru”: dividing the water and sending it off, modifying horie in the second line.
Second line, “Naniwa horie no”: the canal dug at Naniwa in Settsu, a poetic place.
Third line, “nakariseba”: seba, the irrealis of the past ki with ba, forms a counterfactual with mashi in the fourth line.
Fourth line, “ika ni ka semashi”: ka is an interrogative particle and mashi a conjecture tinged with hesitation, what should one do.
Fifth line, “samidare no koro”: the poem ends on a noun, closing with the line shared by the group of rain poems.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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