Amagumo no haruka naritsuru katsuragawa sode o hidete mo watarinuru kana - Tosa Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

あまぐものはるかなりつる桂川
そでをひでゝもわたりぬるかな

Roma-ji: Amagumo no haruka naritsuru katsuragawa sode o hidete mo watarinuru kana
English Translation: Katsura River,
once as distant as the clouds
in the heavens high,
wetting my sleeves though I do,
I have crossed it now at last
Meaning: The Katsura River, once as far away as the clouds in the sky—I have crossed it at last, though it wets my sleeves.
Commentary: 55 The Sixteenth Day of the Second Month: Crossing the Katsura River and Arriving Home

On the sixteenth day of the second month, as they went up toward the capital around evening, they saw that the paintings on the shop chests of Yamazaki and the shape of the main street at Magari were unchanged from before. At Shimasaka someone offered them hospitality. Thinking to enter the capital after nightfall, they took their time, and meanwhile the moon rose. The party crossed the Katsura River under the bright moon. People said to one another, "This river is not the Asuka River, so its deep pools and shallows have not changed at all." Late at night they entered the capital, and when they reached the house and passed through the gate, the moon was so bright that everything could be clearly seen. The house was more broken down and ruined than they had heard, beyond words.
The Katsura River flows west of the capital and is crossed when entering the capital from Yamazaki. The Asuka River was regarded as the very emblem of change because of the Kokin Wakashū poem "Yo no naka wa nani ka tsune naru asukagawa kinō no fuchi zo kyō wa se ni naru." The house had been entrusted to the neighbor, whose home was separated only by a fence so that the two were almost one house; he had asked to look after it, and they had sent him things from time to time while they were away.
Following a certain person's "Hisakata no tsuki ni oitaru katsuragawa soko naru kage mo kawarazarikeri," another person composed this poem.
Then yet another person composed "Katsuragawa waga kokoro ni mo kayowanedo onaji fukasa wa nagaru beranari." The diarist writes that in their joy at reaching the capital there were almost too many poems.

The first line, "Amagumo no," means "distant as the clouds of the sky," working like a pillow word to lead into "haruka" (far) in the second line. The second line, "haruka naritsuru," means "that was so far away," with "tsuru" the attributive form of the perfective auxiliary "tsu." It continues into the third line, "katsuragawa": the Katsura River that had seemed so distant.
In the fourth line, "sode o hidete mo," "hizu" means to get wet: even wetting my sleeves. The final line, "watarinuru kana," closes with the perfective auxiliary "nu" and the exclamatory particle "kana": I have crossed it.
The poem sings the deep feeling of finally crossing the Katsura River, which throughout the journey had seemed as distant as the clouds in the sky. Like the previous poem, it entrusts the joy of homecoming to the crossing of the Katsura River.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Tosa Nikki
Prev Poem: Hisakata no tsuki ni oitaru katsuragawa soko naru kage mo kawarazarikeri
Next Poem: Katsuragawa waga kokoro ni mo kayowanedo onaji fukasa wa nagaru beranari