Haru no kuru ashita no hara o miwataseba kasumi mo kyō zo tachihajimekeru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春の来るあしたの原を見渡せば
霞も今日ぞ立ちはじめける

Roma-ji: Haru no kuru ashita no hara o miwataseba kasumi mo kyō zo tachihajimekeru
English Translation: On this morning when
spring arrives, I gaze across
the plain of Ashita:
the haze as well, this very day,
has only now begun to rise
Meaning: On the morning spring arrived, as I gazed across Ashita Plain, I saw that the haze too, just like the spring, had begun to rise that very day.
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems I 1

Headnote: "Composed on the day spring began"
Composed on the first day of spring by the calendar, this poem opens the Senzai Wakashū. Looking out over Ashita Plain, a famed place in Yamato, on the morning spring arrives, the poet sees that haze too has begun to rise that day, as if keeping pace with the spring that has "risen." The place name Ashita doubles as "morning," and the fresh feeling of the first spring dawn is confirmed by haze, the visible sign of the season.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," is Minamoto no Toshiyori, son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A leading figure in the poetry circle of Emperor Horikawa, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa. Fujiwara no Shunzei, compiler of the Senzai Wakashū, deeply revered him, and more of his poems are included in this anthology than those of any other poet.
Opening an anthology with a poem on the beginning of spring follows the pattern set by the Kokin Wakashū. The Senzai Wakashū, the seventh imperial anthology, was compiled by Fujiwara no Shunzei at the command of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa and completed around 1188.

First line, "haru no kuru": the coming of spring, picking up the headnote's "day spring began" to mark the arrival of the new season.
Second line, "ashita no hara o": Ashita Plain was a field near Kataoka in Yamato and a poetic place name. "Ashita" is a pivot word meaning both the place and "morning," so the poet views Ashita Plain on the morning spring arrives.
Third line, "miwataseba": the realized-condition form, "as I gaze across." The same phrase recurs in 8, 11, 51 and 74 of this book, repeating the motif of grasping spring within a wide view.
Fourth line, "kasumi mo kyō zo": "mo" (too) adds the haze to the rising spring. The emphatic particle "zo" forms a kakari-musubi with "keru" in the last line.
Fifth line, "tachihajimekeru": expresses the poet's delight in noticing the haze beginning to rise. The haze "rising" echoes spring "rising," and the attributive "keru" closes the construction begun by "zo." Where the book's final poem, 76, ends with spring wind blowing through blossoms at Yoshino, the book opens here with haze just beginning to rise.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Next Poem: Mimuroyama tani ni ya haru no tachinuramu yuki no shitamizu iwa tataku nari