Furusato no hana no nioi ya masaruramu shizugokoro naku kaeru kari kana - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

古里の花の匂ひやまさるらむ
静心なく帰る雁かな

Roma-ji: Furusato no hana no nioi ya masaruramu shizugokoro naku kaeru kari kana
English Translation: In their native land
are the blossoms lovelier still?
With restless hearts
they hurry homeward, see,
the wild geese flying north.
Meaning: Are the blossoms of their homeland lovelier still? With restless hearts, the wild geese hurry back north.
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems 33

Watching wild geese hurry north as if forsaking the capital in full bloom, the poet wonders whether the flowers of their homeland are lovelier. In the image of geese leaving without looking at the blossoms, the poet's own attachment to flowers is lit up by contrast.
The author is said to be the mother of Nagazane, posthumously Minister of the Left. Here begin two poems on returning geese.

The first line, "in their native land," here means the northern country that is the geese's home.
In the second line, "nioi" is the lovely color and luster of flowers, and "ya" raises a question.
The third line, "lovelier still," closes a kakari-musubi with the "ya" of the second line and the attributive of "ramu"; the poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "with restless hearts," recalls Ki no Tomonori's Kokinshū poem in which blossoms fall "with restless hearts."
The last line, "the wild geese," closes on geese returning north in spring with the exclamatory "kana," pairing with the next poem's last line, "the returning geese."
Source: Shika Wakashu
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