Chirikakaru tani no ogawa no irozuku wa konoha ya mizu no shigure naruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

散りかかる谷の小川の色づくは
木の葉や水の時雨なるらん

Roma-ji: Chirikakaru tani no ogawa no irozuku wa konoha ya mizu no shigure naruran
English Translation: Falling upon it,
the little valley stream
takes on their color:
are the leaves, I wonder,
the cold shower for the water?
Meaning: The little valley stream takes on color as the leaves fall upon it. Are the leaves, I wonder, the cold shower that dyes the water?
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 379

Headnote: "Composed as a poem on autumn leaves when he had a hundred-poem sequence composed"
Composed as a poem on autumn leaves when the poet had others compose a hundred-poem sequence. Is it because the falling leaves become a cold shower for the water, the poet asks, that the valley stream beneath them takes on color? The conceit lies in reversing the common notion that cold showers dye the leaves, so that the leaves become the shower that dyes the water.
The author, "Sesshō Saki no Udaijin," Regent and former Minister of the Right, is Kujō Kanezane, son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi. He rose from Minister of the Right to Regent, and later to Chancellor and Grand Minister. He left the diary Gyokuyō.
353 and 354 of this book sang of cold showers dyeing the autumn leaves, and this poem reverses that relation, seeing the leaves as the shower that dyes the water.

First line, "chirikakaru": "falling and landing upon," the leaves falling onto the stream.
Second line, "tani no ogawa no": a small stream flowing through a valley.
Third line, "irozuku wa": "that it takes on color," naming what is in question. Where "irozukinikeri" in 353 of this book sang of a mountain coloring, this poem sings of water coloring.
Fourth line, "konoha ya mizu no": the interrogative "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "shigure naruran": "shigure" is the on-and-off rain of late autumn and early winter, believed to dye the leaves. Seeing the leaves as the water's shower is a reversed likening.
Author: Fujiwara no Kanezane
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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