Kagiri areba koromo bakari wa nugikaete kokoro wa haru o shitau narikeri

限りあれば衣ばかりは脱ぎかへて
心は春を慕ふなりけり

Roma-ji: Kagiri areba koromo bakari wa nugikaete kokoro wa haru o shitau narikeri
English Translation: Since seasons have bounds,
my robes alone I have changed,
taking off the old,
yet my heart, still turned to spring,
goes on longing after it.
Meaning: Because the seasons have their appointed limits, I have changed only my robes for summer ones; my heart, I find, still longs for the spring that has gone.
Commentary: Summer Poems 174

This poem opens the summer section. Against the background of the change of dress on the first day of the Fourth Month, the poet says that he has exchanged his robes for summer wear as the season requires, yet his heart still longs for the departed spring. Robes and heart are set against each other: outwardly it is summer, but inwardly he lingers in spring.
The spring section closed with 173 in Book One, a poem lamenting the departing spring, and the summer section begins with a heart still yearning for it. Together with 253 at the end of this book, which already feels the breath of autumn in the wind, the summer section is framed by a lingering attachment to the season before and a foretaste of the season to come.

First line, “kagiri areba”: since the turning of the seasons has its fixed limits; the perfective form with ba states a settled condition.
Second line, “koromo bakari wa”: bakari limits the change to the robes alone, setting up the contrast with kokoro wa in the fourth line.
Third line, “nugikaete”: this is koromogae, the change from spring to summer robes, held at court on the first day of the Fourth Month to mark the start of summer; the conjunctive te carries into the lower verse and the gap between robes and heart.
Fourth line, “kokoro wa haru o”: paired with koromo bakari wa, it shows that the heart alone still faces spring.
Fifth line, “shitau narikeri”: narikeri expresses fresh realization, closing as the poet looks into his own heart still yearning for spring.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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