Nani to naku obotsukanaki wa ama no hara kasumi ni kiete kaeru karigane

なにとなくおぼつかなきは天の原
霞に消えて帰る雁がね

Roma-ji: Nani to naku obotsukanaki wa ama no hara kasumi ni kiete kaeru karigane
English Translation: Somehow, without cause,
what fills me with unease is
in the plains of heaven,
vanishing into the haze,
the wild geese returning home.
Meaning: What somehow troubles my heart is the sight of the wild geese vanishing into the haze across the wide sky as they fly home.
Commentary: Spring Poems 46

Headnote: "Wild geese returning through the haze"
The topic is wild geese returning through the haze, and this poem is the first of two. Watching the geese fly back to the northern lands in spring and disappear into the haze across the sky, the poet feels a vague unease about where they are going.
In the geese lost to sight in the haze, the poet overlays a sense of insecurity about all that departs. The first line nani to naku is the same as in 44, used here too for a stirring of the heart with no clear cause.

First line, “nani to naku”: for no particular reason.
Second line, “obotsukanaki wa”: what is unsettling.
Third line, “ama no hara”: the broad expanse of the sky.
Fourth line, “kasumi ni kiete”: disappearing into the haze.
Fifth line, “kaeru karigane”: the poem closes on a noun, the geese returning north in spring.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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