Hana sakishi nobe no keshiki mo shimogarenu kore nite zo shiru tabi no hikazu wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

花咲きし野辺の気色も霜枯れぬ
これにてぞ知る旅の日数は

Roma-ji: Hana sakishi nobe no keshiki mo shimogarenu kore nite zo shiru tabi no hikazu wa
English Translation: The fields where flowers
bloomed when I set out
are withered now by frost:
by this alone I know
how many days I have traveled
Meaning: The fields where flowers once bloomed have now withered under the frost; by this I know how many days my journey has lasted.
Commentary: Book Eight Travel Poems 511

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the theme of travel when he called for a hundred-poem sequence"
A poem on the topic of travel from the Kyūan Hyakushu. The fields where flowers bloomed have withered under the frost, and by this I know how many days I have been traveling, the poet says. Seeing that the fields in full flower when he set out have turned to frost-withered land, he expresses both surprise and loneliness at the length of his journey.
The author, "Ōimikado Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Kinyoshi, son of Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, who rose to Minister of the Right. He was the father of Fujiwara no Sanesada, the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left.
It is the third in the sequence of travel poems from the Kyūan Hyakushu. The third line of the main text reads ", karenu" with characters missing, so it has been supplemented from the reading line, "shimogarenu."

First line, "hana sakishi": "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," "where flowers bloomed," showing the season when he set out.
Second line, "nobe no keshiki mo": "keshiki" means the look of the place, the scenery.
Third line, "shimogarenu": the perfective "nu," "have withered under the frost." The poem pauses here. The flowers of the first line and the frost-withering of the third are set against each other, showing the turn of the season.
Fourth line, "kore nite zo shiru": the emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "shiru." The poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "tabi no hikazu wa": "the number of days of my journey," inverted with the fourth line. Poem 502 of this book also sings of a journey that meets the first snow as the nights grow colder, showing the length of travel through the turning season.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinyoshi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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