Yamazakura kasumi no ma yori honoka ni mo miteshi hito koso koishikarikere - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山桜霞の間よりほのかにも
見てし人こそ恋しかりけれ

Roma-ji: Yamazakura kasumi no ma yori honoka ni mo miteshi hito koso koishikarikere
English Translation: Like mountain cherries
glimpsed between the drifts of haze
only faintly seen
the one I saw so briefly
is the one I long for now
Meaning: Like mountain cherries glimpsed faintly through a break in the spring haze, the one I saw only for a moment is the one I long for.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 479

Headnote: "Having gone to a place where people were gathering flowers, he later composed this and sent it to someone who had been there"
This poem was sent later to someone the poet had barely glimpsed at a flower-gathering outing. The beauty of mountain cherries peeping faintly through the haze serves as a preface to the feeling that one seen only faintly is all the harder to forget. The device of overlaying a spring image with a glimpse of the beloved is shared with the preceding poem, continuing the current of love for the unseen and the half-seen in the first part of this book.
The poet "Tsurayuki" is Ki no Tsurayuki. He was one of the compilers of the Kokinshu and is believed to have written its kana preface. He served as governor of Tosa and wrote the Tosa Diary. He is one of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "Like mountain cherries": cherries blooming in the hills, seen and lost behind the haze, present a spring scene. Following the young grass of Kasuga Plain in the preceding poem, 478, spring imagery again marks the beginning of love.
Second line, "glimpsed between the drifts of haze": kasumi no ma yori means through a gap in the haze.
Third line, "only faintly seen": honoka ni mo means dimly, and lines one through three work as a preface leading to the one seen so faintly. The word corresponds to hatsuka ni in the preceding poem.
Fourth line, "the one I saw so briefly": miteshi combines the perfective tsu and the past ki, meaning the one I did see. Koso forms a kakari-musubi with kere at the end.
Fifth line, "is the one I long for now": kere expresses the sigh of realization, carrying surprise that one seen so faintly could be so dearly missed.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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