Ukiyo o ba mine no kasumi ya hedatsuran nao yamazato wa sumiyokarikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

憂き世をば峰の霞や隔つらん
なほ山里は住みよかりけり

Roma-ji: Ukiyo o ba mine no kasumi ya hedatsuran nao yamazato wa sumiyokarikeri
English Translation: This world of sorrow,
does the haze upon the peaks
keep it far away?
After all, a mountain village
is a pleasant place to live
Meaning: Is it that the haze upon the peaks shuts out the sorrowful world? After all, the mountain village is a good place to live.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1059

Headnote: "Composed when I went to Awata around springtime"
This poem was composed when he went out to Awata in spring. Does the haze on the peaks keep the sorrowful world away; after all the mountain village is good to live in, he says. Coming to a mountain village east of the capital, he feels as if the spring haze over the peaks holds off the troublesome world, and realizes anew the goodness of life in the hills.
The author, "Former Major Counselor Kintō," is Fujiwara no Kintō. A son of the regent Fujiwara no Yoritada, he rose to major counselor. Excelling in waka, Chinese verse and music alike, he compiled the Wakan Rōeishū. In his later years he took the tonsure and lived in retirement at Nagatani.

First line, "ukiyo o ba": "this sorrowful world."
Second line, "mine no kasumi ya": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle closing with "ran" in the third line. It shares the pairing of the sorrowful world and the haze with "ukiyo hedatsuru kasumi" in the fourth and fifth lines of 1064 of this book.
Third line, "hedatsuran": "ran" is the auxiliary of present conjecture, "does it keep it away?" The poem pauses here. Where this poem surmises that the haze divides him from the world, 1064 supposes "if only the haze divided it," so the two form a pair.
Fourth line, "nao yamazato wa": "nao" means "after all."
Fifth line, "sumiyokarikeri": "keri" is exclamatory, expressing a feeling newly realized.
Author: Fujiwara no Kintō
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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