Harugasumi tatsu akatsuki o miru kara ni kokoro zo sora ni narinu beranaru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春霞たつ暁を見るからに
心ぞそらになりぬべらなる

Roma-ji: Harugasumi tatsu akatsuki o miru kara ni kokoro zo sora ni narinu beranaru
English Translation: As the spring haze rises
at the dawn of your setting out,
the moment I see it
my heart, it seems, will turn
as empty as the sky.
Meaning: The moment I see the dawn when the spring haze rises and you set out, my heart seems about to drift off into emptiness, like the sky.
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 301

Headnote: "Composed by one who stayed behind, at the place where a person setting out on a journey in spring departed at dawn"
Seeing off a traveler at the dawn when the spring haze rises, the poet says that the moment he sees it his heart seems about to drift away into emptiness. Overlaying the sky into which the haze rises with the "sora," the vacant heart of one who sends another off, the poem conveys the blankness of the moment of parting. According to the headnote, it was composed by one who stayed behind in the capital, at the place where a person setting out on a spring journey departed at dawn. Placed at the head of the book of parting poems, it opens the book with the feelings of the one who sees the traveler off. The last poem of the book, 353, is that of a traveler wishing to send word back to the capital, so the head and the close of the book answer each other as the one who sees off and the one who journeys.

First line, "harugasumi," is the haze that hangs in spring. From this poem to 304 partings in spring stand together, followed by the summer robe of 305, the autumn wind of 306, and the winter showers of 310, so that the parting poems are arranged in seasonal order.
Second line, "tatsu akatsuki o," lays on "tatsu" both the rising of the haze and the setting out of the traveler. The final line of 346 in this book also sings of "akatsuki," so the dawn of departure and the dawn on the road form a pair.
Third line, "miru kara ni," means "the moment I see it."
Fourth line, "kokoro zo sora ni," means "my heart into emptiness," echoing the sky where the haze rises. It is emphasized by the particle "zo."
Final line, "narinu beranaru," means "seems about to become," with "beranari" a conjectural auxiliary much used in the early Heian period, resolving "zo" in its attributive form "beranaru."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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