Samidare ni mizu masarurashi sawadagawa maki no tsugihashi ukinu bakari ni - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

五月雨に水まさるらし沢田川
槙の継橋浮きぬばかりに

Roma-ji: Samidare ni mizu masarurashi sawadagawa maki no tsugihashi ukinu bakari ni
English Translation: In the early summer rain
the waters seem to be rising
in Sawada River,
so the bridge of joined pine planks
is all but floating away
Meaning: The waters seem to be rising in the early summer rain: on the Sawada River, the bridge of joined planks is almost afloat.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 138

The Sawada River has risen with the summer rains, so high that the bridge of joined planks seems about to float. The force of the swollen river is conveyed through the exaggeration of a bridge lifted by the water.
The Sawada River is a poetic place in Yamashiro, sung in the saibara song 'Sawadagawa' as a river so shallow it barely wets the sleeves, yet spanned by a high bridge. The wit lies in having this famously shallow river swell until the bridge almost floats.
From poem 135 through poem 140 in this book come poems on the early summer rains, depicting how the long, unceasing rain swells the waters and sinks the landscape beneath them.
The author, Akinaka (Fujiwara), is Fujiwara no Akinaka. A son of Fujiwara no Sukenaka, he was an active poet in the circle of Emperor Horikawa.

First line, 'samidare ni', means because of the summer rains.
Second line, 'mizu masarurashi', uses rashi, inference from evidence: the water seems to be rising. The poem breaks after the second line. Like 'are the waters rising' in the preceding poem, 137, it surmises the swelling waters.
Third line, 'sawadagawa', is a poetic river in Yamashiro sung in saibara.
Fourth line, 'maki no tsugihashi', is a bridge made by joining planks of fine timber.
Final line, 'ukinu bakari ni', means almost floating, giving the evidence for the inference in the second line. In poem 140 in this book the bridge of an inlet actually floats, moving from this poem's near-floating to an actual floating.
Author: Fujiwara no Akinaka
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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