Ame furite niwa ni tamareru nigorimizu ta ga sumaba ka wa kage no miyubeki - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

雨降りて庭にたまれる濁り水
誰がすまばかはかげの見ゆべき

Roma-ji: Ame furite niwa ni tamareru nigorimizu ta ga sumaba ka wa kage no miyubeki
English Translation: Rain has fallen down,
and in my garden pools collect
the muddied water;
till someone dwells and clears it,
how could any bay be seen?
Meaning: Muddy water pools in my garden after the rain: until someone lives here and lets it clear, how could any reflection, or any bay horse, be seen in it?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Miscellaneous Love Poems 1253

Headnote: "When, on a rainy day, a servant familiar to her came to a woman whom a man had stopped visiting, saying he had come looking for a bay horse"
The poet asks who would have to live there and clear the muddy water pooled in the garden before any reflection could be seen. The headnote shows that when a man had stopped visiting a woman, his servant, familiar to her, came on a rainy day saying he was looking for a bay horse, and she composed this. Pivoting on "sumu," to clear and to live, and on "kage," reflection and bay horse, she puts reproach for the man who no longer comes into the claim that no bay horse could be seen at a house where its master no longer lives.

First line, "ame furite," means "rain has fallen," the rainy day of the headnote.
Second line, "niwa ni tamareru," means "pooling in the garden," with "ru" the attributive form of the auxiliary "ri" of continuing state.
Third line, "nigorimizu," means "muddy water," water that holds no reflection and calls to mind a dwelling run down for want of visits.
Fourth line, "ta ga sumaba ka wa," is a pivot word: "suma" means the water "clearing" and someone "living" there. "Ka wa" is a rhetorical question answering "beki" in the final line. It shares the same pivot with the fourth line of the next poem, 1254, "sumanu ni kage wa."
Final line, "kage no miyubeki," is a pivot word: "kage" means a "reflection" on the water and a "bay" horse. "Beki" is the attributive form of the auxiliary of possibility "beshi."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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