Fuku kaze ni hanatachibana ya niouran mukashi oboyuru kyō no niwa kana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

吹く風に花橘やにほふらん
昔おぼゆる今日の庭かな

Roma-ji: Fuku kaze ni hanatachibana ya niouran mukashi oboyuru kyō no niwa kana
English Translation: On the blowing wind,
is it orange blossom's scent
that is wafting here?
The past comes back to mind
in this garden of today.
Meaning: Is it the scent of orange blossoms on the blowing wind? This garden today brings the past back to mind.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1953

Headnote: "A sandalwood-scented breeze delights the hearts of the assembly."
This is the third poem in the sequence of poems from the Hundred Poems on Buddhist Texts by Jakuzen and others. Is it the scent of orange blossoms carried on the wind? This garden today calls back the past. According to the headnote, it was composed on the meaning of "A sandalwood-scented breeze delights the hearts of the assembly."
The scriptural scene in which, as the Buddha preached, a sandalwood-scented wind gladdened people's hearts, is carried over into the scent of orange blossoms, expressing longing, in the garden of a Buddhist service, for the days when the Buddha lived.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Jakuzen Hōshi, who, whose lay name was Fujiwara no Yorinari, was a son of Fujiwara no Tametada. With his elder brothers Jakunen and Jakuchō he lived in retirement at Ōhara, and the three were called the Three Jaku of Ōhara. He was a close friend of Saigyō.
"A sandalwood-scented breeze delights the hearts of the assembly" is a phrase in the verses of the Introductory chapter of the Lotus Sutra, telling how, as the Buddha was about to preach, a breeze fragrant with sandalwood blew and gladdened the people's hearts.
The lower half takes as its foundation poem the anonymous Kokin Wakashū poem "Satsuki matsu / hanatachibana no / ka o kageba / mukashi no hito no / sode no ka zo suru," using its conceit that the scent of orange blossoms recalls the past.

The first line, "fuku kaze ni," takes up the scripture's "scented breeze," the wind that carries fragrance.
The second line, "hanatachibana ya," replaces the scripture's "sandalwood" with orange blossoms, whose scent in waka recalls the past. The particle "ya" poses a question.
The third line, "niouran," closes the kakari-musubi of "ya" with the attributive "ran," conjecturing that they must be fragrant. The poem breaks after it.
The fourth line, "mukashi oboyuru," means "the past comes to mind"; taking up the foundation poem's "person of the past," it here recalls the days when the Buddha lived.
The last line, "kyō no niwa kana," is the garden where today's service is held, closing with the exclamatory "kana." It expresses the scripture's "delights the hearts of the assembly" as the joy of recalling the past.
Author: Jakuzen
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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