Mitarashi no nagare wa itsumo kawaraji o sue ni shi nareba asamashi no yo ya

御手洗の流れはいつも変はらじを
末にしなればあさましの世や

Roma-ji: Mitarashi no nagare wa itsumo kawaraji o sue ni shi nareba asamashi no yo ya
English Translation: The Mitarashi stream
as it flows will never change,
I suppose, and yet
since we've come to its far end,
how shallow and sad this age!
Meaning: The flow of the Mitarashi stream will surely never change, and yet, since we have come to its lower reaches in this latter age, what a shallow and deplorable world it is.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 1222

Headnote: "As the night grew late, the sound of the Mitarashi stream seemed sacred"
At the same Kamo Shrine, as night deepened the sound of the Mitarashi stream seemed holy, and Saigyō composed this. The stream surely flows unchanged, yet since we have come to the end of its course, to the latter days, what a deplorable world it is.
The unchanging stream is set against the declining world, taking up the lament for faded rites in the preceding poem. Sue pivots on "lower reaches" and "latter age," asamashi on "shallow" water and "deplorable," lamenting the world's decline through water imagery.

First line, “mitarashi no”: of the Mitarashi stream at Kamo.
Second line, “nagare wa itsumo”: the stream's flow, always.
Third line, “kawaraji o”: ji is negative conjecture, o concessive, "though it will not change."
Fourth line, “sue ni shi nareba”: sue pivots on "lower reaches" and "latter age"; shi is emphatic.
Fifth line, “asamashi no yo ya”: asamashi pivots on "shallow" and "deplorable"; ya is exclamatory.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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