Wakana tsumu nobe no kasumi ni aware naru mukashi o tōku hedatsu to omoeba

若菜摘む野辺の霞にあはれなる
昔を遠くへだつと思へば

Roma-ji: Wakana tsumu nobe no kasumi ni aware naru mukashi o tōku hedatsu to omoeba
English Translation: Plucking tender herbs,
in the haze that veils the field
I am deeply moved,
for I feel it stands between
me and the long-vanished past.
Meaning: Picking young herbs, I am deeply moved by the haze over the fields, for it seems to me to set the dear past far away.
Commentary: Spring Poems 21

Headnote: "On the topic “Thinking of the past through young herbs”"
The topic is remembering the past through young herbs. Seeing the haze over the fields where herbs are gathered, the poet feels that this very haze holds the beloved past at a distance, and is filled with quiet emotion.
The way haze screens things from view is laid over the gap in time between now and long ago. The poem carries a nostalgic feeling that herb gathering, a custom repeated every year, calls to mind all the years that have slipped away.

First line, “wakana tsumu”: gathering young herbs in the fields at the start of spring.
Second line, “nobe no kasumi ni”: at the haze lying over the field where the herbs are gathered.
Third line, “aware naru”: deeply moving; the feeling is left hanging here, with a break after the third line.
Fourth line, “mukashi o tōku”: the cherished past, far away.
Fifth line, “hedatsu to omoeba”: since I feel the haze divides me from it, giving in inverted order the reason for the feeling in the third line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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