Haru kureba tanomu no kari mo ima wa tote kaeru kumoji ni omoitatsu nari - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春来ればたのむの雁も今はとて
帰る雲路に思ひ立つなり

Roma-ji: Haru kureba tanomu no kari mo ima wa tote kaeru kumoji ni omoitatsu nari
English Translation: When spring comes round
even the geese of the fields
saying, "now it's time,"
on the cloud-road homeward
set their hearts to fly
Meaning: When spring comes, even the geese that relied on the rice fields seem to say, "now it is time," and resolve to set out on the cloud-road home.
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems I 36

Headnote: "Composed as a poem on returning geese within a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on the topic "returning geese" for the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence, this poem says that the geese which arrived in autumn and relied on the rice fields seem, when spring comes, to say "now it is time" and resolve to set out on the sky-road north. The geese's departure is portrayed like a person's resolve to part.
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.
"Tanomu no kari" is a phrase dating back to a poem in The Tales of Ise about the geese of the fields at Miyoshino crying that they come to rest on your side.

First line, "haru kureba": "when spring comes."
Second line, "tanomu no kari mo": "tanomu" is a pivot word meaning both "the face of the rice field" where geese alight and "to rely on."
Third line, "ima wa tote": "saying, now it's time," words that suggest a farewell.
Fourth line, "kaeru kumoji ni": "kumoji" is the road through the clouds, the path of the sky. Four poems on returning geese run from this one through 39.
Fifth line, "omoitatsu nari": the inferential "nari" gives "they seem to resolve to set out." "Tatsu" also carries the sense of geese taking wing.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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