Kasumuramu hodo o mo shirazu shiguretsutsu suginishi aki no momiji o zo miru - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

霞むらむほどをも知らず時雨つつ
過ぎにし秋の紅葉をぞ見る

Roma-ji: Kasumuramu hodo o mo shirazu shiguretsutsu suginishi aki no momiji o zo miru
English Translation: Not knowing the time
when the spring haze must have come,
showered by my tears,
I am gazing still upon
the autumn leaves that have passed.
Meaning: Unaware that it must already be the hazy season of spring, weeping like the autumn rain, I gaze still upon the colored leaves of an autumn long gone.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1246

Headnote: "She had told the Emperor she would come when spring arrived, but did not; from the palace he said, 'Has the year not turned yet?' She attached her reply to autumn maple leaves."
This is the sixth poem of the sequence lamenting estrangement through images of autumn and winter. Not knowing that the world must now be veiled in spring haze, weeping like the autumn rain, she says, I still gaze on the leaves of the autumn that has passed. According to the headnote, she had told the Emperor she would return to court in spring but did not, and when Emperor Murakami asked, "Has the year not turned yet?" she attached this reply to maple leaves.
The author, "Consort Princess Kishi," is a daughter of Prince Shigeakira, son of Emperor Daigo, and a consort of Emperor Murakami. Having served in her youth as the High Priestess of Ise, she was called the Consort Priestess. She is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
The Emperor answers in the next poem, 1247.

In the first line, "kasumuramu," "ramu" conjectures about the present: "by now the world must be hazy." Imagining the arrival of spring, it shows that she herself stands outside that spring.
The second line, "hodo o mo shirazu," means "not knowing even the season." It answers the Emperor's question, "Has the year not turned yet?" by saying she did not even know spring had come.
The third line, "shiguretsutsu," means "as the late-autumn rain keeps falling," overlaid with days spent in tears. The autumn and winter rain is set against the spring haze, contrasting the seasons.
The fourth line, "suginishi aki no," means "of the autumn that has passed."
In the last line, "momiji o zo miru," "zo" is an emphatic particle, and "miru" closes in the attributive form. Matching the maple leaves to which the poem was attached, it tells him that her heart remains in autumn and has not yet welcomed spring.
Author: Princess Kishi
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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