Tatsutayama matsu no muradachi nakariseba izuku ka nokoru midori naramashi - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

竜田山松のむらだちなかりせば
いづくか残る緑ならまし

Roma-ji: Tatsutayama matsu no muradachi nakariseba izuku ka nokoru midori naramashi
English Translation: On Mount Tatsuta
if there were no stands
of pine trees growing,
where then would any green
have remained upon its slopes?
Meaning: If there were no stands of pine on Mount Tatsuta, where would any green have remained?
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 367

Headnote: "Composed when a hundred-poem sequence was presented"
Composed for a hundred-poem sequence. If Mount Tatsuta had no stands of pine, the poet asks, where on the mountain would any green remain? He conveys how Mount Tatsuta, famed for its leaves, has colored completely by noting that only the pines keep their green, depicting the height of autumn color from the opposite side.
The author, "Fujiwara no Kiyosuke Ason," was the son of Master of the Eastern Capital Office Fujiwara no Akisuke. He carried on the poetic scholarship of the Rokujō Fujiwara house and wrote the treatises Fukuro Zōshi and Ōgishō. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
375 and 376 of this book also sing of the pine that does not change color amid the autumn leaves and fallen leaves.

First line, "Tatsutayama": a mountain in Yamato famed for its autumn leaves. 373 of this book has the same first line.
Second line, "matsu no muradachi": "muradachi" is a stand of trees growing together. Like "irokaenu matsu" in 375 of this book, it shows the unchanging green of the pine.
Third line, "nakariseba": "if there had not been," a counterfactual supposition answered by "mashi" in the last line.
Fourth line, "izuku ka nokoru": the interrogative "ka" closes with the attributive "mashi" in the last line.
Fifth line, "midori naramashi": "mashi" is counterfactual, "where would green have remained? Nowhere."
Author: Fujiwara no Kiyosuke
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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