春霞立つ春日野を行き返り
我れは相見むいや年のはに
我れは相見むいや年のはに
- Roma-ji
-
Harugasumi tatsu kasugano o yukikaeri ware wa aimimu iya toshi no ha ni
- English Translation
-
Where the haze of spring
rises over Kasuga,
going and returning,
I shall look upon it still
more and more, year after year.
- Meaning
- Coming and going over Kasuga Plain, where the spring haze rises, I will gaze upon it again and again, year after year.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Spring Miscellaneous Poems 1881
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "An Outing in the Fields"
This poem vows to visit and gaze upon Kasuga Plain, where spring haze rises, every year to come. Taking up the preceding poem's wish never to forget this day, it wishes further to return each year, widening the joy of one day into the recurrence of years. The contrast of scale between a single day and the passing years appears within this group of outing poems.
The first line, "spring haze," colors the scene of Kasuga Plain.
The second line, "Kasuga Plain where it rises," shows the same setting as the preceding poem.
The third line, "going and returning," shows the poet visiting the plain again and again.
In the fourth line, "ware wa aimimu," "mu" expresses intention, the resolve to go on seeing the plain, and the poem breaks here.
In the last line, "iya toshi no ha ni," "iya" means ever more and "toshi no ha" means every year; by inversion it closes with the recurrence of the years.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
-
Kasugano no asaji ga ue ni omou dochi asobu kyō no hi wasuraeme ya mo
- Next Poem
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Haru no no ni kokoro nobemu to omou dochi koshi kyō no hi wa kurezu mo aranu ka