Sawarabi ya shita ni moyuran shimogare no nohara no keburi harumekinikeri - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さわらびや下にもゆらん霜枯れの
野原の煙春めきにけり

Roma-ji: Sawarabi ya shita ni moyuran shimogare no nohara no keburi harumekinikeri
English Translation: Young bracken shoots, perhaps,
sprout and burn beneath the ground;
for in the frost-withered
fields the smoke that rises now
has taken on a breath of spring.
Meaning: Perhaps young bracken is sprouting below the ground, for the smoke over the frost-withered fields being burned has taken on the air of spring.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Autumn Poems 1154

Headnote: "For a screen of the Crown Prince: a place where the winter fields are being burned"
The poet wonders whether the smoke rising from the frost-withered fields being burned looks like spring because young bracken is already sprouting beneath the ground. The headnote shows it was written for a screen of the Crown Prince, painted with a scene of winter fields being burned. Joining in "moyu" the senses "to sprout" and "to burn," it finds in the winter field-burning a sign of spring already stirring.
The author is Fujiwara no Michiyori, a figure of whom little is known.

First line, "sawarabi ya," means "the young bracken shoots," with "ya" a questioning binding particle.
Second line, "shita ni moyuran," turns on the pivot word "moyu," joining "moyu," the bracken sprouting, and "moyu," the field-burning fire, so that it means "are they sprouting beneath the ground." "Ran," the attributive form of the auxiliary of present conjecture, resolves the "ya" of the first line. The poem breaks after this second line.
Third line, "shimogare no," means "frost-withered," echoing the fourth line of 1143 in this book, "shimo karegare ni," and the first line of the next poem, 1155, "shimogare ni," in singing of frost-withered plants.
Fourth line, "nohara no keburi," means "the smoke of the burning fields."
Final line, "harumekinikeri," means "has taken on the air of spring," with "keri" a sigh of realization. From here through 1157, poems awaiting spring at the end of the year follow one another.
Author: Fujiwara no Michiyori
Source: Shui Wakashu
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