Tachiwataru kasumi nomi ka wa yama takami miyuru sakura no iro mo hitotsu o - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

立ち渡る霞のみかは山高み
見ゆる桜の色も一つを

Roma-ji: Tachiwataru kasumi nomi ka wa yama takami miyuru sakura no iro mo hitotsu o
English Translation: Is it the haze alone
that spreads out over all? No—
the mountain's so high,
the cherries that I see there
are of one color with it
Meaning: Is it only the spreading haze? No—because the mountain is so high, the cherry blossoms seen there are all one color with it.
Commentary: Book Two Spring Poems II 63

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
It is not only the haze filling the mountain, the poet says; the cherries seen far off on the high mountain share its color and cannot be told apart. The distant view where haze and cherries merge is vividly drawn through a rhetorical question.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us. The text gives the poet as "yomibito mo," which is treated here as "anonymous."

The first line, "Tachiwataru," depicts haze spreading over everything.
In the second line, "ka wa" is rhetorical: "is it only the haze? Surely not." The poem pauses here. The blending of haze and blossom color also links it with 73 of this book, composed on the topic of haze shutting in the flowers' color.
In the third line, "takami," the suffix "mi" gives the cause: "because the mountain is high."
The fourth line, "miyuru sakura no," names the cherries seen far off on the mountain.
In the last line, "o" is an adversative tinged with a sigh: "though the cherries too are of one color."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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