五月待つ小田のますらをいとまなみ
堰き入る水に蛙鳴くなり
堰き入る水に蛙鳴くなり
- Roma-ji
-
Satsuki matsu oda no masurao itoma nami sekiiru mizu ni kawazu nakunari
- English Translation
-
Waiting for fifth month,
the stout men out in the fields
have no time to spare;
in the water they let flow in
I can hear the frogs are singing.
- Meaning
- The men of the fields, awaiting the planting month, have no moment to spare—and in the water they have dammed and let in, I hear the frogs singing.
- Commentary
-
Summer Poems 138
Headnote: "A summer poem"
The poem depicts an early-summer farming village before rice planting. It pairs the busyness of the men preparing their fields with the singing of frogs in the water let into the paddies, portraying the lively workings of the season.
According to the source's note, line 4 read differently in the original and the editor emended it to sekiiru following the Ruijū text; this edition follows that emendation. The Teika text gives line 4 as sekiiruru mizu ni.
Line 1, "waiting for the fifth month," refers to waiting for the season of rice planting.
Line 2: oda means a rice field, with o a prefix; masurao here refers to the men working the fields.
Line 3, itoma nami, means "having no time," formed with mi attached to an adjective stem to express a cause.
Line 4 means "in the water dammed and let into the fields."
Line 5: nari infers from sound, so the frogs are sensed through their voices.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
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