Through springtime haze
the wild geese once passed away—
yet now they cry,
above the drifting autumn mist,
their voices heard once more.

Meaning

The wild geese that once flew away into the spring haze are now crying above the autumn mist.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)

The poem contrasts spring and autumn, and haze with mist, describing the geese that fly north in spring and return in autumn.

Though included in the Kokinshū as a poem of unknown authorship, later works attribute it to Ki no Tsurayuki (or possibly Tomonori). An anecdote tells that when Tsurayuki began with “spring haze…,” others mocked him for choosing the wrong season, but when he completed the poem, all were moved by its elegant turn.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

At my very gate the inaose-bird has cried— and with that same breath, on the wind that blows this dawn the wild geese have now arrived.
How early it cries— the call of the passing wild goose; though the white dew yet tints the trees, not fully turned into the hues of autumn leaves.
In the chill of night, as if to borrow a robe— the wild geese cry out; and beneath the bush clover, the lower leaves have turned and fade.
On the autumn wind, with their voices raised like sails, come the passing ships— yet they are but the wild geese crossing Heaven’s narrow strait.

Through springtime haze the wild geese once passed away— yet now they cry, above the drifting autumn mist, their voices heard once more.

Through springtime haze
the wild geese once passed away—
yet now they cry,
above the drifting autumn mist,
their voices heard once more.