Ka o tomete tare orazaran ume no hana ayanashi kasumi tachi na kakushi so - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

香をとめて誰折らざらん梅の花
あやなし霞立ちな隠しそ

Roma-ji: Ka o tomete tare orazaran ume no hana ayanashi kasumi tachi na kakushi so
English Translation: Following the scent,
who would not break off a branch
of the plum blossoms?
How pointless, O haze, then,
do not rise and hide them so.
Meaning: Who, tracking their scent, would fail to break off the plum blossoms? It is all in vain, O haze, so do not rise and hide them.
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems 16

Headnote: "For a folding screen of the Kamo Princess"
Since anyone can track the plum blossoms by their scent and come to break them off, it is useless for the haze to rise and hide them, the poet tells the haze. In a lightly playful tone it points out how pointless it is to conceal a plum whose whereabouts its scent betrays. According to the headnote, the poem accompanied a screen for the Kamo Princess.
The author, written as Mitsune, is Ōshikōchi no Mitsune. One of the compilers of the Kokinshū, he was ranked alongside Ki no Tsurayuki and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "ka o tomete," with "tomu" meaning "to seek out," describes tracking down the plum by its scent.
Second line, "tare orazaran," is a rhetorical question: "who would not break it off?" meaning everyone would.
Third line, "ume no hana," stands as the object of that question, and the poem pauses after the third line.
Fourth line, "ayanashi kasumi," uses "ayanashi," meaning "unreasonable" or "pointless," and here addresses the haze.
Final line, "tachi na kakushi so," uses the prohibitive "na ... so": "haze, do not rise and hide them." In poems 38 and 42 of this book, too, clouds and haze are urged not to hide or screen the flowers.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Shui Wakashu
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