Munashiki mo iro naru mono to satore to ya haru no misora no midori naruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

むなしきも色なるものと悟れとや
春の御空の緑なるらん

Roma-ji: Munashiki mo iro naru mono to satore to ya haru no misora no midori naruran
English Translation: That emptiness too
is a thing of form and color,
is it to teach us
that the heavens of the spring
are tinged with such a green?
Meaning: Is it to teach us that emptiness too is form that the spring sky is tinged with green?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Buddhist Poems 1229

Headnote: "Composed on form is emptiness, emptiness is form, at the time of the same hundred-poem sequence"
At the same hundred-poem sequence at Kanezane's house, she composed this on the words "form is emptiness, emptiness is form." Is it to make us realize that emptiness too is form that the spring sky is green? she says. She entrusts the Heart Sutra's line, that whatever has form is emptiness and emptiness is form, to the way the empty sky looks tinged with green in spring, showing as a visible scene that emptiness and form are one.
The author, "Tango of the Regent's household," was a lady-in-waiting in the household of Kujō Kanezane who later served his daughter Ninshi, Gishūmon'in, and was called Gishūmon'in no Tango.
It comes from the same hundred-poem sequence at Kanezane's house as the preceding poem, 1228, and takes up its "munashi" to sing of the sky.

First line, "munashiki mo": "munashiki" is emptiness in the Buddhist sense, and since the character for emptiness is also read "sora," sky, it carries over to "misora" in the fourth line. It takes up "munashi to tokeru" in the second line of the preceding poem, 1228.
Second line, "iro naru mono to": "iro" is form in the Buddhist sense, overlaid with the sense of color.
Third line, "satore to ya": "ya" is an interrogative binding particle closing with "ran" in the fifth line, "is it telling us to realize?"
Fourth line, "haru no misora no": "misora" is an elegant word for the sky, answering the emptiness of "munashiki" in the first line.
Fifth line, "midori naruran": "ran," the attributive of the causal conjectural "ramu," closes the binding: "is the sky green in order to make us realize this?"
Author: Gishumon-in no Tango
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kuretake no munashi to tokeru koto no ha wa miyo no hotoke no haha to koso kike
Next Poem: Nagaki yo mo munashiki mono to shirinureba hayaku akenuru kokochi koso sure