Samidare wa maya no nokiba no amasosoki amari naru made nururu sode kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

五月雨は真屋の軒端の雨そそき
あまりなるまで濡るる袖かな

Roma-ji: Samidare wa maya no nokiba no amasosoki amari naru made nururu sode kana
English Translation: In the rains of May,
like the dripping of the rain
from the gabled eaves,
so beyond all measure now
are my sleeves soaked through and through.
Meaning: In the early summer rains, like the rain dripping from the eaves of a gabled house, my sleeves are soaked beyond all measure.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1492

Headnote: "From the Hundred Poems of Personal Grievance, on the early summer rains."
This is the tenth poem of the sequence on summer. In the early summer rains, the poet's sleeves are soaked beyond all measure, like the rain dripping from the eaves of a gabled house. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of the early summer rains in the Hundred Poems of Personal Grievance.
The author, "Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Shunzei," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. He was the son of Fujiwara no Toshitada and the father of Teika. He served as Master of the Empress Dowager's Household and took the tonsure in Angen 2 (1176). He compiled the Senzai Wakashū.
The Hundred Poems of Personal Grievance is a hundred-poem sequence Shunzei composed in his youth, filled with lament over his lack of advancement. The first half draws on the saibara song "Azumaya": "Azumaya no / maya no amari no / sono amasosoki / ware tachinurenu / tonodo hirakase" ("From the eaves of the gabled house of the eastern cottage, the rain drips down; I stand here soaked—open the door").

The first line, "samidare wa," presents the long rains of the fifth lunar month. Taking up "samidare no sora" of the preceding poem, it sings of the same early summer rains.
In the second line, "maya no nokiba no," "maya" is a house roofed on both sides. It uses the words of the saibara "Azumaya" just as they are.
The third line, "amasosoki," refers to the rain dripping from the eaves. The first three lines form a preface that leads by sound to "amari" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "amari naru made," means "to an excessive degree." Echoing the sound from "amasosoki" to "amari," it overlays the abundance of dripping rain with the abundance of tears.
The last line, "nururu sode kana," closes with the exclamatory "kana." Following the preceding poem's tears that never clear, it sings of sleeves soaked by tears surpassing the early summer rains, filled with personal grievance.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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