Seeing spring’s haze rise,
the geese go, leaving it all;
to a flowerless town—
are they so used to living
where no blossoms bloom?

Meaning

Seeing the spring haze rise, the geese fly north, leaving behind the season when blossoms will soon bloom; are they accustomed to living in a land where no flowers bloom?

Commentary

Spring Songs, Book One

A poem on the geese returning north.

Did people of the Heian capital imagine that flowers do not bloom in the borderlands?
When the spring haze rises and the season of long-awaited blossoms is about to come, the geese fly north without waiting.
There may be a shadow of a heart that cannot rejoice in welcoming spring.

Author

Ise

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

In the deep mountains, not knowing which way to go, with an anxious voice a calling bird calls out— how uncertain it sounds.
When spring comes round, the geese return north again; on the white clouds’ road they go their distant way— would that I could send word.
When I plucked them, my sleeves are what now smell— plum blossoms’ scent; thinking blossoms are here, the warbler sings nearby.
More than its color, its fragrance moves the heart— so deeply it feels; whose sleeves once brushed this lodge’s plum to leave such scent behind?

Seeing spring’s haze rise, the geese go, leaving it all; to a flowerless town— are they so used to living where no blossoms bloom?

Seeing spring’s haze rise,
the geese go, leaving it all;
to a flowerless town—
are they so used to living
where no blossoms bloom?