山里の外面の小田の苗代に
岩間の水をせかぬ日ぞなき
岩間の水をせかぬ日ぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Yamazato no sotomo no oda no nawashiro ni iwama no mizu o sekanu hi zo naki
- English Translation
-
In the mountain home
the small field out behind
with its seedling bed,
water from between the rocks
not a day it's not dammed in
- Meaning
- Into the seedbed of the little field behind the mountain dwelling, not a day passes without water from among the rocks being dammed and led in.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 75
The poet depicts water from among the rocks being led every day into the seedbed of a field behind a mountain dwelling, capturing a mountain life given over to tending the rice seedlings.
First line, 'yamazato no', uses the same word as poem 71, a dwelling in the mountains.
Second line, 'sotomo no oda no', uses sotomo, outside or behind the house.
Third line, 'nawashiro ni', uses nawashiro, a bed where rice seedlings are raised, a scene of late spring farming.
Fourth line, 'iwama no mizu o', is water flowing among the rocks; it can be read as the 'ice among the boulders' of poem 1 now melted and flowing, echoing the opening poem.
Final line, 'sekanu hi zo naki', means there is no day it is not dammed in, the double negative stressing the daily work.
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Shigi no iru nosawa no oda o uchikaeshi tane makite keri shime haete miyu
- Next Poem
-
Waga yado ni mata kon hito mo miru bakari ori na tsukushi so yamabuki no hana