Mata mo kon aki o tanomu no kari dani mo nakite zo kaeru haru no akebono - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

またも来ん秋をたのむの雁だにも
鳴きてぞ帰る春の曙

Roma-ji: Mata mo kon aki o tanomu no kari dani mo nakite zo kaeru haru no akebono
English Translation: Even the wild geese
of the fields that trust in autumn's
return once again
go back crying as they leave
in the spring dawn's early light
Meaning: Even the wild geese of the rice fields, which can trust that autumn will bring them back again, go home crying in the dawn of spring.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 1186

Headnote: "On the topic of love on the morning after."
This is the tenth poem of the sequence on the feelings of the morning after. Even the wild geese of the rice fields, which can trust in autumn's return, go back north crying at the spring dawn, implying the sorrow of one who parts with no promise of meeting again. According to the headnote, it was composed on the set topic of love on the morning after.
The author, "Regent and Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Yoshitsune. A son of the Regent Kujō Kanezane, he rose to Regent and Chancellor and wrote the kana preface of the Shinkokinshū.
The first three lines draw on "the geese of the rice fields" (tanomu no kari) in section 10 of The Tales of Ise: "Of fair Yoshino / the wild geese in the rice fields / wholeheartedly cry / that it is to your side / they wish to draw near."

The first line, "mata mo kon," means "that will come again," referring to the geese flying back in autumn.
In the second line, "aki o tanomu no," "tanomu" is a pivot word meaning both "trusting in autumn" and "the face of the rice fields" (ta no mo). It uses "tanomu no kari" from The Tales of Ise.
The third line, "kari dani mo," means "even the wild geese." "Dani" names the lesser case to suggest the greater, leaving the implication "how much more so" below.
The fourth line, "nakite zo kaeru," means "go back crying," the emphatic "zo" forming a kakari-musubi with the attributive "kaeru." The geese returning north are overlaid with the one who goes home weeping on the morning after.
The last line, "haru no akebono," ends on a noun. If even the geese, whose season of return is fixed, go home crying, how much more so one with no fixed day of meeting again—this feeling remains as lingering resonance. Following the spring nights of 1177 and 1178 of this book, it sings of parting at the dawn of spring.
Author: Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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