Ayamegusa hiku te mo tayuku nagaki ne no ikade asaka no numa ni oikemu - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あやめ草引く手もたゆく長き根の
いかであさかの沼に生ひけむ

Roma-ji: Ayamegusa hiku te mo tayuku nagaki ne no ikade asaka no numa ni oikemu
English Translation: O sweet flag, whose roots
are so long the hand grows tired
pulling them from earth,
how did you come to grow
in the shallow Asaka marsh
Meaning: How did the sweet flag, with roots so long that the hand grows weary pulling them, ever come to grow in the marsh of Asaka, whose name means shallow?
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 129

The poet wonders how the sweet flag, with roots so long that pulling them tires the hand, came to grow in the marsh of Asaka, a name suggesting shallowness. It is a witty poem contrasting the length of the roots with the 'shallow' in the marsh's name.
The marsh of Asaka is a poetic place in Michinoku, known from a Kokinshū poem on the katsumi flower.
From poem 127 through poem 134 in this book come poems on the sweet flag, which was hung from the eaves and whose roots were compared for length at the Tango festival on the fifth day of the Fifth Month.

First line, 'ayamegusa', is the sweet flag whose roots were pulled for the Tango festival.
Second line, 'hiku te mo tayuku', means the pulling hand grows weary, stressing the roots' length.
Third line, 'nagaki ne no', means long roots; at the Tango festival people even competed over root length.
Fourth line, 'ikade asaka no', is a pivot word combining the poetic place Asaka in Michinoku with asaka, shallow, set against 'long' in the third line. The interrogative ikade answers kemu in the final line.
Final line, 'numa ni oikemu', uses the past conjectural kemu, wondering how it came to grow there.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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