Itsushika mo hatsuharusame zo furinikeru nobe no wakana mo oiya shineran

いつしかも初春雨ぞ降りにける
野辺の若菜も生ひやしねらん

Roma-ji: Itsushika mo hatsuharusame zo furinikeru nobe no wakana mo oiya shineran
English Translation: Before I knew it,
the first rain of the new spring
has come falling down—
have the young greens in the fields
begun sprouting up by now?
Meaning: Before I knew it, the first rain of the new spring has fallen. Have the young greens in the fields already begun to sprout?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1063

Headnote: "When rain fell on the first day of the first month"
Composed when rain fell on New Year's Day. Before he knew it, the first rain of the new spring has fallen, and the poet wonders whether the young greens in the fields have begun to sprout with it.
Where 1060 sang of a heart unable to feel spring in the rain of a spring come within the old year, this poem welcomes the New Year's rain as spring rain nurturing the greens; the same rain is sung with the heart turned the other way.

First line, “itsushika mo”: before one knew it, already.
Second line, “hatsuharusame zo”: zo is emphatic, answered by the attributive keru in the third line.
Third line, “furinikeru”: closing the zo construction, "it has fallen"; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “nobe no wakana mo”: the young greens of the fields too, receiving the blessing of the rain.
Fifth line, “oiya shineran”: the text reads oiya shineran while the reading line has oiya shinuramu; the text is followed and read as oiya shinuran, ya questioning and ran conjecturing, "might they have sprouted?"
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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