Mukashi mishi haru wa mukashi no haru nagara waga mi hitotsu no arazu mo aru kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

昔見し春は昔の春ながら
我が身ひとつのあらずもあるかな

Roma-ji: Mukashi mishi haru wa mukashi no haru nagara waga mi hitotsu no arazu mo aru kana
English Translation: The spring I once saw,
that long-ago spring, is still
the spring of long ago;
it is only I myself
who am no longer the same.
Meaning: The spring I saw long ago is still the spring of long ago—only I myself am no longer what I was.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1450

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence recalling springs of the past. Spring is the same spring as long ago, yet the poet alone is no longer what he was. The headnote reads "topic unknown," and records nothing of the circumstances of composition.
The author, "Fukayabu," is Kiyohara no Fukayabu, the grandfather of Kiyohara no Motosuke and the great-grandfather of Sei Shōnagon. A poet of the early Heian period, he was also known as a master of the koto.
Ariwara no Narihira's poem in the Kokin Wakashū, "Tsuki ya aranu / haru ya mukashi no / haru naranu / waga mi hitotsu wa / moto no mi ni shite" ("Is this not the moon? Is this spring not the spring of old? I alone remain the self I was"), says that though the moon and spring are no longer as they were, he alone is unchanged. This poem reverses that structure: spring is as it was, and only the poet has changed.

The first line, "mukashi mishi," uses the past auxiliary "shi" to mean "that I once saw." Taking up "aware mukashi to" of the preceding poem, it continues the longing for the past.
The second line, "haru wa mukashi no," repeats "mukashi" from the first line, stressing that spring is the same as long ago.
In the third line, "haru nagara," "nagara" means "just as it was." Repeating "haru" of the second line, it creates a rhythm in which "mukashi" and "haru" alternate.
The fourth line, "waga mi hitotsu no," is nearly the same as Narihira's fourth line, "waga mi hitotsu wa," singling out the poet's own self against the unchanging spring.
The last line, "arazu mo aru kana," means "I am not the self I was," with "kana" as an exclamatory final particle. Reversing Narihira's "moto no mi ni shite," it laments a self changed by age.
Author: Kiyohara no Fukayabu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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