Sonohara ya Fuseya ni ouru hahakigi no ari to wa miete awanu kimi kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

園原や伏屋に生ふる帚木の
ありとは見えて逢はぬ君かな

Roma-ji: Sonohara ya Fuseya ni ouru hahakigi no ari to wa miete awanu kimi kana
English Translation: Sonohara,
where by the low hut there grows
the broom tree:
there, it seems, and yet you are
one I never come to meet
Meaning: Like the broom tree growing by the low hut at Sonohara, which seems to be there from afar but vanishes as one draws near, you seem to be there, yet you will not meet me.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 997

Headnote: "At the poetry contest held at the house of Taira no Sadafumi."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love for someone not yet met. The legendary broom tree, visible from afar but vanishing as one approaches, stands for a beloved who can be seen yet will not meet the speaker. According to the headnote, it was composed at a poetry contest at the house of Taira no Sadafumi.
The author, "Sakanoue no Korenori," was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. He served as Acting Junior Secretary of Yamato and Vice-Governor of Kaga, and his son Mochiki was counted among the Five Men of the Pear Chamber.
Taira no Sadafumi was a poet of the early Heian period, known as Heichū and taken to be the hero of The Tale of Heichū.
The legend of the broom tree gave its name to the Hahakigi chapter of The Tale of Genji, and the poems exchanged there by Genji and Utsusemi draw on this poem.

In the first line, Sonohara lies in Ina District of Shinano, in present-day Achi Village, Nagano, at the foot of the Misaka Pass leading over into Mino. "Ya" is exclamatory.
In the second line, "fuseya" means a low, humble hut, said to have stood at Sonohara.
In the third line, the "hahakigi" is a legendary tree that looks from afar like an upturned broom but cannot be seen when one draws near. The first three lines form a preface to the lower verse.
The fourth line, "ari to wa miete," means "seeming to be there," overlaying the tree's form with a beloved who is present yet cannot be met.
The last line closes with the exclamatory "kana." Where the preceding poem's "itsu miki" was love for one never seen, here the beloved is seen but not met, and the gap between seeing and meeting forms a pair across the two poems.
Author: Sakanoue no Koreyuki
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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