Spring

Composed on the First day of the First Month

今朝みれば山もかすみて久かたのあまのはらより春は来にけり

kesa mireba yama mo kasumite hisakata no ama no hara yori haru wa kinikeri

Gazing out this morning The mountains are all hazed From the eternal Plains of Heaven[i] Spring has come, at last!

1

---

[i] The reference to the ‘plains of Heaven’ (ama no hara 天の原) being ‘eternal’ (hisakata 久方) implies that the poet has been long awaiting the arrival of spring—a nuance which I have attempted to capture with the final ‘at last’.