Ume ga e ni nakite utsurou uguisu no hane shirotae ni awayuki zo furu

English Translation

On the plum tree's branch
singing, moving as it goes
the warbler; and now
over its wings shining white
the light snow is falling still

Meaning

The warbler goes singing from branch to branch of the plum, and the snow falls until its wings are white.

Commentary

Book One Spring Poems I 30

Headnote: as in the preceding poem, treated as topic unknown.
Plum, warbler and snow, the subjects of everything so far, are gathered into a single poem. This is the second of the two Man'yoshu pieces set into the run on plum. The original gives no fresh headnote.
The poet is recorded only as unknown.
The season is the time of plum blossom; no place is given.
The occasion of composition is not recorded.

The verb closing the second line means to shift position, to move from one place to another; here, the warbler going from branch to branch. Singing and moving are caught in one stroke.
The third line reaches down to the wings named below.
The word in the fourth line names a white cloth woven from paper-mulberry fibre, and by extension whiteness itself. A warbler's wing is in fact a dull greenish brown, so that to see it white is an exaggeration measuring how thickly the snow has settled.
The final line repeats the close of the nineteenth and twentieth poems, with the same emphatic construction. This is its third appearance in the book.
Snow cannot really pile on the wings of a bird in motion, but that small excess conveys at once how fine the flakes are and how hard they are falling. Holding plum, warbler and snow together, the poem stands as a summing-up of the run.

Author

Unknown Poet

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

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