Unohana no kakine to nomi ya omowamashi shizu no fuseya ni keburi tatazu wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

卯の花の垣根とのみや思はまし
賤の伏屋に煙立たずは

Roma-ji: Unohana no kakine to nomi ya omowamashi shizu no fuseya ni keburi tatazu wa
English Translation: I would have thought it
nothing but a hedge of deutzia,
were it not for smoke
rising from the humble
low hut of some peasant folk
Meaning: I would have taken it for nothing but a hedge of deutzia, had smoke not been rising from a peasant's humble hut.
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 144

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Deutzia Hiding a House'"
Composed on the topic "Deutzia Hiding a House." A humble hut is so completely covered with deutzia that, had no cooking smoke risen from it, the poet would have taken it for a mere hedge of flowers. The conceit of discovering the house only through its smoke shows deutzia blooming so thickly that they hide a dwelling. The deutzia sequence ends here.
The author, "Fujiwara no Atsutsune Ason," was a courtier of the late Heian period. Little else is known of his life.

First line, "unohana no": modifies "kakine" in the second line.
Second line, "kakine to nomi ya": "nomi" limits and the interrogative "ya" links with "mashi" in the third line. It closes the run of poems on deutzia hedges that began with 139 of this book.
Third line, "omowamashi": "mashi" is counterfactual: "I would have thought." The poem pauses here and is inverted with the lines that follow.
Fourth line, "shizu no fuseya ni": "shizu" are humble folk, and "fuseya" a low, rough hut.
Fifth line, "keburi tatazu wa": "zu wa" is a negative hypothetical, "had smoke not risen," answering "mashi" in the third line to form a counterfactual. In 183, 185 and 186 of this book, smoke appears again amid the early summer rains.
Author: Fujiwara no Atsutsune
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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