Inishie no hito no ueken sugi ga e ni kasumi tanabiku haru wa kinurashi

いにしへの人の植ゑけむ杉が枝に
霞たなびく春は来ぬらし

Roma-ji: Inishie no hito no ueken sugi ga e ni kasumi tanabiku haru wa kinurashi
English Translation: In the days of old
people planted, it may be,
these branches of cedar;
now the haze is trailing there—
spring has come, it seems, at last.
Meaning: On the branches of the cedars that people of long ago must have planted, a haze now trails. It seems that spring has come.
Commentary: Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1814

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Spring Miscellaneous Poems"
Seeing haze trailing over old cedars that someone of long ago must have planted, the poet infers that spring has arrived. The long years of the cedar and the single moment of this year's spring are laid one upon the other, so that the season's arrival is felt within the flow of ages. Like 1812, the poem infers spring from the haze, and it likewise closes with "rashi."
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.

The first line, "of long ago," points to the distant past. By making the planters people of old, it conveys the age and historical depth of the cedars.
In the second line, "that people must have planted," "kemu" is an auxiliary of conjecture about the past. The phrasing imagines those who planted the trees, reading elapsed time in the cedars before the poet's eyes.
The third line, "on the cedar branches," shows where the haze hangs. "Ga" is a possessive particle, setting before us the concrete scene of an old cedar's boughs.
The fourth line, "the haze trails," also appears in the preceding group and, as in 1812, serves as the phrase that confirms the spring scene.
In the last line, "haru wa kinurashi," "nu" marks completion and "rashi" grounded inference. Echoing "haru tatsurashi mo" in 1812, the poem closes by inferring spring's arrival from the haze.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Makimuku no hibara ni tateru harugasumi ōni shi omowaba nazumi kome ya mo
Next Poem: Kora ga te o makimukuyama ni haru sareba ko no ha shinogite kasumi tanabiku