Sode nurete kyō fuku yado no ayamegusa izure no numa ni ta ka hikikemu

袖濡れて今日葺く宿のあやめ草
いづれの沼に誰か引きけむ

Roma-ji: Sode nurete kyō fuku yado no ayamegusa izure no numa ni ta ka hikikemu
English Translation: Sleeves are drenched with rain
as today the house is thatched
with the iris leaves—
in what marsh were they pulled up,
and by whom, I wonder now?
Meaning: The irises thatched today on this house, with sleeves soaked by rain—from what marsh, and by whose hand, were they pulled?
Commentary: Summer Poems 162

Headnote: "On thatching irises during the early-summer rains"
Watching irises being thatched onto the eaves for the Boys' Festival in the early-summer rain, the poet composed this. From irises set in place with rain-soaked sleeves, his thoughts reach out to the toil of whoever pulled them from the marsh.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on seeing irises during the early-summer rains." In the source text consulted, a character in line 4 could not be read and has been supplied from the Teika text's izure no numa ni.

Line 1, "sleeves are drenched," refers to sleeves wet from working in the rain.
Line 2: "today" is the fifth day of the fifth month, showing the custom of thatching irises on the eaves to ward off evil.
Line 3, ayamegusa, is the sweet flag used at the festival. The next poem, 163, takes "Iris" as its topic, so two iris poems follow one another.
Line 4 asks "in which marsh."
Line 5: ka is an interrogative binding particle concluded by the attributive of the past conjectural kemu.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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