Akakaraba mirubeki mono o karigane no izuko bakari ni nakite yukuran - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

明かからば見るべきものを雁がねの
いづこばかりに鳴きて行くらん

Roma-ji: Akakaraba mirubeki mono o karigane no izuko bakari ni nakite yukuran
English Translation: If it were but light,
I could see them as they pass—
the wild geese,
just where is it, I wonder,
that they go crying by
Meaning: If only it were light, I could see them—just where, I wonder, are the wild geese crying as they pass?
Commentary: Book Seven Autumn Poems III 430

Headnote: "On a dark autumn night, while several of us were talking together, wild geese passed over crying."
The poet says that if it were light the geese could be seen, and wonders just where they are passing, crying in the dark. It feels for geese whose voices alone can be heard, their forms unseen.
According to the headnote, it was composed when wild geese passed over crying while several people were talking together on a dark autumn night. 356 of this book is also a poem that knows the passing of geese by their voices on an autumn night. Against the bright moonlit night of the preceding poem, this one sings of a moonless dark night.
The poet, written in kana as "Minamoto no Watasu," is Minamoto no Watasu, a courtier of the early Heian period about whom little is known.

The first line, "Akakaraba," means "if it were light."
In the second line, "mono o" is an adversative exclamation: "I could see them, and yet." The poem pauses here.
The third line, "karigane no," means "the wild geese."
In the fourth line, "bakari" marks a rough range: "around where."
In the last line, "ran" is an auxiliary of present conjecture: "where are they going, crying?"
Author: Minamoto no Watasu
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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