Help with a sentence.

Hello, I need a help to completelly understand this line.

日照りが続き水が涸れれば雨は救いの主だが、降り続く雨は決壊を引き起こす水害として認識される。

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I more or less get that the sentence says something like:

"A rain following a drought is the main help(?), but an incessant rain is know as the cause of a flood."

I'm ignoring details in "降り続く雨は決壊を引き起こす水害として認識される。", I know.

But I want to know how I should interpret "日照りが続き水が涸れれば雨は救いの主だが,". Maybe I have problems with how "ga" is used here.

Thanks in advance.

日照りが続き
水が涸れれば
雨は救いの主、 だが（however)

Does that help any?

For this first part, I would say something like "Rain is a savior", rather than rain is a "main help".

Majestic said:

For this first part, I would say something like "Rain is a savior", rather than rain is a "main help".

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Yes, just now I saw that "救いの主" is probably the same as saying "救い主".

As for the rest, how would you translate the first part? I'm really lost right now.

EDIT: Ah! wait...

日照りが続き
水が涸れれば
雨は救いの主

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I think I understand how the grammar worked here now.

So, thinking about "日照りが続き水が涸れれば", the interpretation would be something like " If the drought continues, then water runs dry"?

Hmmm - you have the general meaning, but think of the overall sentence. In the original sentence, one view of rain is contrasted with another, opposite view. Its these opposing views that the writer is drawing attention to. So the structure is more like

In certain situations, rain is a savior. But in other situations, it is seen as a destroyer/causer of damage.

I've left the blue bits for you to figure out. The bit in pink is my own paraphrasing. The original would be a bit more wordy (and therefore the contrast in English would be somewhat lacking in punch). But hopefully you will understand it a bit better and you can decide how to translate it.

Edit: Maybe you are looking for a better translation for ~ば phrases. These don't always translate into "If" sentences. Sometimes they work better as "When" sentences. "When X happens, expect Y to follow". Just two different ways of phrasing a conditional sentence.

totsuka said:

So, thinking about "日照りが続き水が涸れれば", the interpretation would be something like " If the drought continues, then water runs dry"?

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hint 2;
The two clauses 日照りが続き and 水が涸れれば are both conditional.