When Lady Saishō from the Sen’yōden had returned to her estate, I called but got the impression that she already had company; returning home, I sent this to her using a woman I had come across washing water-celery in the Nakagawa River.
なかゞはにすゝく田芹のねたき事あらはれてこそあるべかりけれ
| nakagaFa ni susuku taseri no netaki koto araFarete koso arubekarikere |
In Nakagawa Rinsing water-celery Roots – green-eyed; That another had appeared, You should have said plainly. |
Your notes on water-celery indicate that the herb is associated with the spring. Can that reference be used to fix the season in which the poem was composed, or is it a plant that can be harvested year-round?
http://www.wakapoetry.net/seri/
I don’t know enough about the plant to be able to say when it could be harvested, but generally, while the poetic connotations of a plant, bird, or animal would be rooted in their actual behaviours and seasonality, the generally accepted poetic view was more important then reality. So, for example, a refernce to tachibana (orange blossom) automatically made a poem a ‘Summer’ one, even though you might get the blossom appearing in calendrical spring.