Wakete iru niwa shimo yagate nobe nareba hagi no sakari o waga mono ni miru

分けて入る庭しもやがて野辺なれば
萩の盛りを我がものに見る

Roma-ji: Wakete iru niwa shimo yagate nobe nareba hagi no sakari o waga mono ni miru
English Translation: Since the very yard
I enter, parting grasses,
is the moor itself,
all the bush clover's full bloom
I can view as all my own.
Meaning: Since the very garden I make my way into is itself the open moor, I can look upon the bush clover in full bloom as if it were all my own.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 271

Headnote: "A cottage on a moor filled with bush clover"
The topic is a dwelling in fields full of bush clover. Since the garden the poet enters, parting the grasses, runs straight on into the moor where the clover grows thick, he can view the clover at its height as his own garden's flowers, his alone. The poem expresses the pleasure of living in the midst of the fields.
Following the preceding poem's clover filling the moor, this one speaks from the standpoint of one who lives there, and of the heart that has the clover's full bloom to itself.

First line, “wakete iru”: entering by parting the grass, showing a garden so overgrown there is hardly a path; a hypermetric line of six syllables.
Second line, “niwa shimo yagate”: shimo is emphatic and yagate means as it is, the garden itself just as it is.
Third line, “nobe nareba”: since it is the moor, the perfective form with ba stating a settled reason.
Fourth line, “hagi no sakari o”: the time when the bush clover blooms at its best.
Fifth line, “waga mono ni miru”: to see as one's own, closing on the joy of claiming the clover of the moor as the clover of one's garden.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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