Ume no hana sore to mo miezu hisakata no
amagiru yuki no nabete furereba

English Translation

plum blossoms or not
they cannot be told apart now—
from the distant sky
thick-clouding snow falls everywhere
covering all in equal white

Meaning

Whether they are plum blossoms or not cannot be told, for snow, clouding the sky, falls everywhere in a single white.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems

The poem expresses that the white plum blossoms cannot be distinguished from the white of the falling snow. It is a scene that could only be seen in the brief transition from winter to spring.

There is also a theory that the poet is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a representative poet of the Man’yōshū.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

at break of morning as though it were the lingering moon of the dawn-lit sky— in Yoshino village falls a deep white snow all around
before it melts away fall yet again, pile ever deep— O drifting spring haze, if once you rise into the sky such snow will seldom meet my eyes
though the hue of flowers blends with snow and cannot be seen still let their fragrance drift and softly make them known so that people may perceive
if the scent of plum mingled with the fallen snow resting on the ground— who then could clearly discern and pluck each one apart

Ume no hana sore to mo miezu hisakata no amagiru yuki no nabete furereba

Ume no hana sore to mo miezu hisakata no
amagiru yuki no nabete furereba