Asaborake shita yuku mizu wa asakeredo fukaku zo hana no iro wa miekeru - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

朝ぼらけ下行く水は浅けれど
深くぞ花の色は見えける

Roma-ji: Asaborake shita yuku mizu wa asakeredo fukaku zo hana no iro wa miekeru
English Translation: In the break of dawn,
the water flowing below
is shallow, and yet
how deep the color of
the flowers can be seen
Meaning: At daybreak, the stream that flows beneath the wisteria is shallow, yet how deep the color of the blossoms appears in it.
Commentary: Book Three Spring Poems III 130

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "While they were playing the koto and flute and talking, the night grew late, and so the guest stayed over."
At dawn, the stream flowing beneath the wisteria is shallow, yet the color of the flowers looks deep. Contrasting shallow water and deep color, and joking that the stream likened to a deep pool the day before is in fact shallow, the poet praises the wisteria's depth of color and closes the sequence.
The three poems from 128 to 130 form a sequence exchanged the morning after Sadakata stayed the night, when the same banquet as in the three preceding poems had continued late into the night.
The poet, Ki no Tsurayuki, was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokin Wakashū and wrote its kana preface. He served as governor of Tosa among other posts, is known as the author of the Tosa Diary, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The first line, "Asaborake," means the faint light of daybreak, showing that, like the two preceding poems, this is the morning after the stay.
The second line, "shita yuku mizu wa," names the garden stream flowing beneath the wisteria.
In the third line, "do" is adversative. He jokes that the stream likened to a bottomless pool in 125 and 127 is in fact shallow.
In the fourth line, "fukaku," deep, contrasts with "asakere," shallow, in the third line. "Zo" forms a kakarimusubi pattern with the attributive "keru" in the last line.
In the last line, "keru" expresses a sigh of realization that the flowers' color looks deep. The sequence of wisteria banquet poems closes here.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Hitoyo nomi neteshi kaeraba fuji no hana kokoro toketaru iro misen ya wa
Next Poem: Uguisu no ito ni yoru chō tamayanagi fuki na midari so haru no yamakaze