Tani fukami haru no hikari no osokereba yuki ni tsutsumeru uguisu no koe - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

谷深み春の光の遅ければ
雪につつめる鶯の声

Roma-ji: Tani fukami haru no hikari no osokereba yuki ni tsutsumeru uguisu no koe
English Translation: The valley's so deep
that the light of spring arrives
here only slowly—
still wrapped up within the snow,
the warbler's singing voice.
Meaning: Because the valley is so deep, the light of spring is slow to reach it, and the warbler's song is still wrapped up in the snow.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1441

Headnote: "On the warbler."
This is the first poem of the sequence on the warbler and the plum. Because the valley is deep and the light of spring is slow to arrive, the warbler's song is still wrapped and hidden in the snow. The headnote gives only the topic and records nothing of the circumstances of composition.
The author, "Sugawara, Posthumous Chancellor," is Sugawara no Michizane. The son of Sugawara no Koreyoshi, he was highly favored under Emperors Uda and Daigo and rose to Minister of the Right, but he was demoted to Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu and died there. Because he was later posthumously granted the office of Chancellor, he is called the Posthumous Chancellor.

The first line, "tani fukami," adds the suffix "mi" to a noun and an adjective stem, meaning "because the valley is deep."
The second line, "haru no hikari no," refers to the light of the spring sun. It shows that the spring sunlight hardly reaches the valley floor.
The third line, "osokereba," adds "ba" to the perfective form to state a fixed condition: "because it is slow."
In the fourth line, "yuki ni tsutsumeru," the "ru" is the auxiliary of continuation, meaning the voice remains wrapped in snow. The warbler's song is still shut up in the snow and does not ring out.
The last line, "uguisu no koe," ends on a noun. The warbler was thought of as the bird that comes out of the valley to announce spring, and here its voice is still shut in the valley snow. Whereas the preceding poems sang of spring melting ice and snow, this poem sets the late spring of a valley where snow still lingers, forming a contrast within the sequence.
Author: Sugawara no Michizane
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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