Samidare ni Asazawanuma no hanakatsumi katsu miru mama ni kakure yuku kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

五月雨に浅沢沼の花かつみ
かつ見るままに隠れゆくかな

Roma-ji: Samidare ni Asazawanuma no hanakatsumi katsu miru mama ni kakure yuku kana
English Translation: In the summer rains
the flowering katsumi
of Asazawa Marsh,
even as I watch them, sink
and vanish from my sight
Meaning: With the waters swollen by the early summer rains, the flowering katsumi of Asazawa Marsh sink out of sight even as I watch.
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 180

Headnote: "Composed as a poem on the summer rains for a poetry contest held by the Nakanoin Lay-Priest Minister of the Right when he was a Middle Captain"
Composed on "the summer rains" for a poetry contest held by Minamoto no Masasada, the Nakanoin Lay-Priest Minister of the Right, while he was still a Middle Captain. In Asazawa Marsh, swollen by the summer rains, the flowering katsumi sink under the water one after another even as the poet watches. Drawing "katsu miru," even as I watch, from the sound of "hanakatsumi," it depicts the force of the steadily rising water through the flowers disappearing before his eyes.
The author, "Fujiwara no Akinaka Ason," was the son of Provisional Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Sukenaka. He served as Assistant Captain of the Left Military Guards and rose to Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade. One of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence, he was also known as a calligrapher.
Ever since the anonymous Kokin Wakashū poem, "Like the flowering katsumi of Asaka Marsh in Michinoku, shall I go on loving one I glimpse only now and then?", the device of drawing "katsu" from "hanakatsumi" was widely used.

First line, "samidare ni": "because of the early summer rain."
Second line, "Asazawanuma no": Asazawa Marsh, a poetic place at Sumiyoshi in Settsu. The "asa," shallow, in its name contrasts with a marsh growing deep in the rains.
Third line, "hanakatsumi": a waterside plant, said to be a kind of wild rice. It works as a preface leading by sound to "katsu miru."
Fourth line, "katsu miru mama ni": "katsu" means "even as," so "even as I watch."
Fifth line, "kakure yuku kana": the exclamatory "kana," showing the flowers sinking out of sight. Poem 182 of this book also tells of channel markers vanishing in the swollen waters.
Author: Fujiwara no Akinaka
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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