Hisakata no ame no kaguyama kono yūbe kasumi tanabiku haru tatsurashi mo

ひさかたの天の香具山この夕
霞たなびく春立つらしも

Roma-ji: Hisakata no ame no kaguyama kono yūbe kasumi tanabiku haru tatsurashi mo
English Translation: Far and wide the sky,
heavenly Mount Kagu stands;
on this evening now
the haze is trailing along—
it seems that spring has begun.
Meaning: This evening a haze trails across the heavenly Mount Kagu. Spring, it seems, has truly arrived.
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1812

Headnote: "Spring Miscellaneous Poems"
This poem celebrates the discovery of spring's arrival in the haze that trails over the heavenly Mount Kagu at dusk. From a visible sign, the haze, the poet infers the invisible turning of the season, and the whole is framed in a calm and generous rhythm. Placed at the very head of Book Ten and its Spring Miscellaneous Poems, it is famous as the poem that opens the seasonal books of the Man'yōshū.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.
Empress Jitō's poem in Book One, 28, "Spring has passed and summer seems to have come; white robes are drying on heavenly Mount Kagu," likewise reads a change of season in the scenery of Mount Kagu, showing that the mountain was sung as one that announces the seasons. This poem is also said to lie behind Retired Emperor Go-Toba's "Faintly, spring seems to have come to the sky; haze trails over heavenly Mount Kagu" in the Shin Kokinshū.

The first line, "hisakata no," is a pillow word attached to "heaven." Evoking the boundless expanse of the sky, it solemnly introduces "heavenly Mount Kagu."
The second line, "Mount Kagu of heaven," names one of the Three Mountains of Yamato, a sacred peak said to have descended from the sky. Joined with the pillow word, it is set before us as a mountain both holy and vast.
The third line, "on this evening," limits the time to dusk. By catching the haze not in the morning but at day's end, the poem shows a quiet gaze that confirms the change of season as the day closes.
The fourth line, "the haze trails," depicts haze drawn out in long horizontal bands. The same phrase recurs from 1814 through 1818, binding together this group of spring miscellaneous poems from the Hitomaro Collection.
The last line, "haru tatsurashi mo," uses "rashi," an auxiliary of grounded inference, and "mo," an exclamatory particle. From the evidence of the haze the poet infers that spring has begun, and closes the poem with the joy of that discovery.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Haka no ue no konoe nabikeri kikishi goto chinu otoko ni shi yori ni kerashi mo
Next Poem: Makimuku no hibara ni tateru harugasumi ōni shi omowaba nazumi kome ya mo