While snow still falls,
spring has already arrived;
the bush warbler’s
tears, once frozen in the cold—
are they melting now?

Meaning

Though the snow is still falling, spring has already arrived. The bush warbler’s tears, frozen throughout the winter—might they now be melting at last?

Commentary

Volume One: Spring Songs (Upper)
An imperial poem by the Nijō Empress on early spring.
Even in freezing cold, merely hearing that it is the Beginning of Spring makes one feel spring drawing near.
The bush warbler’s frozen tears, too, will melt, and it will soon begin to sing.
In the bush warbler, which sings before spring fully arrives, one senses the coming of spring ahead of time.
It is also said to contain the feeling of having passed into the new year before the Nijō Empress’s banishment had been lifted.

Author

Fujiwara no Takako

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

With sleeves soaked through, the water once I cupped now froze; now, on this spring day, is today’s gentle wind melting that ice away?
Spring haze rising— where can it be found at all? Here in fair Yoshino, on Yoshino’s mountain slopes, snow is still falling.
The fence I knew of the girl I once beheld has fallen to ruin; amid mingled cogon grass, violets alone remain.
The palace guards and their men stand far aside; in the unswept court, where no one tends the garden, flowers have fallen and lie.

While snow still falls, spring has already arrived; the bush warbler’s tears, once frozen in the cold— are they melting now?

While snow still falls,
spring has already arrived;
the bush warbler’s
tears, once frozen in the cold—
are they melting now?