Makomo karu Yodo no sawamizu ame fureba tsune yori koto ni masaru waga koi - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

真菰刈る淀の沢水雨降れば
常よりことにまさるわが恋

Roma-ji: Makomo karu Yodo no sawamizu ame fureba tsune yori koto ni masaru waga koi
English Translation: Like the marsh waters
of Yodo where wild rice is cut,
when the rain comes down,
more than ever before
it swells, this love of mine.
Meaning: Like the marsh waters of Yodo, where they cut wild rice, which swell when the rain falls, my love grows greater than ever before.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 587

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that, just as the marsh waters of Yodo, where wild rice is cut, rise with the rain, his love too grows more than ever. The waterside scene of the upper verse serves as a preface, and the rising water is overlaid with his mounting love. The final line ends on the noun phrase "waga koi," "my love," stating the growing feeling with lasting effect.
Ki no Tsurayuki was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface. He served as Governor of Tosa and is also known as the author of the Tosa Diary. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "makomo karu": makomo, wild rice, is a grass growing at the water's edge, cut and woven into mats. "Where wild rice is cut" is a modifying phrase depicting the scene at Yodo.
Second line, "Yodo no sawamizu": Yodo is a place in Yamashiro Province, marshland along the Yodo River. Marsh waters are sung of as rising with the rain.
Third line, "ame fureba": the first three lines form a preface leading, through the rising water, to masaru in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "tsune yori koto ni": koto ni means especially, "even more than usual."
Fifth line, "masaru waga koi": masaru overlays the water rising and love growing. The poem ends on the noun "waga koi." Like "shigesa masaredo" in 560 of this book, it overlays the growth of a natural image with the growth of love.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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