Nioi mote wakaba zo wakamu ume no hana sore tomo mienu haru no yo no tsuki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

匂ひもて分かばぞ分かむ梅の花
それとも見えぬ春の夜の月

Roma-ji: Nioi mote wakaba zo wakamu ume no hana sore tomo mienu haru no yo no tsuki
English Translation: If by fragrance
I am to tell them, so I shall,
O blossoms of plum,
when you cannot be made out
beneath the spring night's moon
Meaning: If I am to tell you apart by your fragrance, then I surely can, O plum blossoms, though in the light of the spring night's moon you cannot be seen for what you are.
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems I 20

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on plum blossoms when presenting a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Like the preceding poem, this one was composed on "plum blossoms" for the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence. In the hazy moonlight of a spring night the white plum blossoms cannot be distinguished, but by their scent they can be found. The conceit of grasping unseen plum through fragrance layers the misty spring moon with the scent of plum.
The author, "Former Middle Counselor Masafusa," is Ōe no Masafusa, son of Ōe no Narihira. A scholar who served three emperors, Go-Sanjō, Shirakawa and Horikawa, he rose to Provisional Middle Counselor. Famed for his learning, he was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence.
It follows the same conceit as Ōshikōchi no Mitsune's Kokin Wakashū poem saying that on a moonlit night the plum cannot be seen, so one must seek it out by its scent.

First line, "nioi mote": "mote" means "by means of," so "by fragrance."
Second line, "wakaba zo wakamu": a hypothetical condition followed by "zo" closing with the attributive of conjectural "mu": "if I am to tell, I shall tell."
Third line, "ume no hana": an address to the plum blossoms, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "sore tomo mienu": "not visible as such," not plainly seen to be plum.
Fifth line, "haru no yo no tsuki": ending on a noun, it names the hazy moonlit night that hides the blossoms, supplying afterward, by inversion, the premise of the second line's conjecture.
Author: Oe no Masafusa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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