Haru no no ni kiri tachiwatari furu yuki to hito no miru made ume no hana chiru

春の野に霧立ちわたり降る雪と
人の見るまで梅の花散る

Roma-ji: Haru no no ni kiri tachiwatari furu yuki to hito no miru made ume no hana chiru
English Translation: Out on the spring fields
the mist is rising everywhere,
and as falling snow
so that people take them to be,
the plum blossoms scatter down
Meaning: Over the spring fields the mist rises everywhere, and the plum blossoms fall so thickly that people take them for snow.
Commentary: Book Five Miscellaneous Poems 839

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Thirty-two poems on plum blossoms, with preface"
The poet says mist rises over the spring fields and plum blossoms fall so thickly that people mistake them for snow. Inheriting the snow conceit of the host Tabito's poem 822 and adding mist, he paints a dreamlike spring scene.
This is one of the thirty-two poems of the Plum Blossom Banquet, held on the thirteenth day of the first month of Tenpyō 2, when officials of Dazaifu and provincial governors of Kyushu gathered at the residence of the Governor-General Ōtomo no Tabito and composed poems on the plum trees in his garden. The Chinese preface describes how, in the auspicious first month of early spring, the air was fine and the breeze gentle, the plums opened white like face powder before a mirror, and the orchids gave off a scent like a perfume sachet; it is also famous as the source of the era name Reiwa. The preface closes by proposing that, just as Chinese poetry has its pieces on falling plum blossoms, the company should compose short poems on the garden plums. The poem is signed "Secretary of Chikuzen Den-shi Magami."
The poet, Denshi no Magami, was an official serving as secretary of Chikuzen Province.

First line, "haru no no ni": the same line as the first of 837, opening onto the wide fields.
Second line, "kiri tachiwatari": mist spreading everywhere; unlike the mist of grief in 799, it is drawn here as the beauty of a spring landscape.
Third line, "furu yuki to": likening the falling blossoms to snow, following the conceit of 822.
Fourth line, "hito no miru made": "so much that people take them so."
Fifth line, "ume no hana chiru": the same words as the second line of 822, stating the falling blossoms outright at the close.
Author: Denshi no Magami
Source: Manyoshu
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