Samidare ni mizu masaru rashi Ujibashi ya kumode ni kakaru nami no shiraito

五月雨に水まさるらし宇治橋や
蜘蛛手にかかる波の白糸

Roma-ji: Samidare ni mizu masaru rashi Ujibashi ya kumode ni kakaru nami no shiraito
English Translation: In the summer rain,
the waters must be rising:
O Uji Bridge,
on your spider-legs there hang
the white threads of the waves.
Meaning: The waters must be rising with the early summer rains: at Uji Bridge, white threads of waves hang on the spider-leg timbers of its piers.
Commentary: Summer Poems 208

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Early summer rains"
This is the second of the early summer rain poems. Seeing waves catching like white threads on the spider-leg timbers that support the piers of Uji Bridge, the poet infers that the early summer rains have swollen the Uji River.
The word kumode, spider-legs, calls up the threads of a spider, and the waves caught on them are likened to white threads, a likening that makes use of verbal association.
The text reads uchibashi, which might also be taken as a simple plank bridge, but here it is read as Uji Bridge over the Uji River.

First line, “samidare ni”: because of the early summer rains.
Second line, “mizu masaru rashi”: rashi expresses inference from evidence; the scene in the lower lines is the grounds for judging that the water has risen, with a break after the second line.
Third line, “Ujibashi ya”: the bridge over the Uji River in Yamashiro, a poetic place; ya is exclamatory.
Fourth line, “kumode ni kakaru”: kumode are timbers set out in all directions to brace the piers, named for spreading like a spider's legs.
Fifth line, “nami no shiraito”: the poem ends on a noun, likening the white waves caught on the timbers to white threads, through the association with spiders.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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