Kimi ga omoi yuki to tsumoraba tanomarezu haru yori nochi wa araji to omoeba - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君が思ひ雪と積もらば頼まれず
春より後はあらじと思へば

Roma-ji: Kimi ga omoi yuki to tsumoraba tanomarezu haru yori nochi wa araji to omoeba
English Translation: If your love for me
piles up like the falling snow,
I cannot trust it,
for when spring has come and gone
I fear it will be no more.
Meaning: If your feelings pile up like snow, I cannot rely on them, for I fear that after spring comes they will be gone.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 978

Headnote: "Composed when Muneoka no Ōyori had come up from Koshi and, seeing the snow falling, said, "My feelings for you have piled up like this snow""
Muneoka no Ōyori, who had come up to the capital from Koshi, looked at the falling snow and said that his feelings had piled up like it. Mitsune answered with this poem, turning his friend's words around in jest: if his love piles up like snow, it cannot be trusted, since it will melt away once spring comes.
The next poem, 979, is Ōyori's reply, retorting that the snow on Shirayama in Koshi never melts, and the exchange can be enjoyed for its wit.
The author, "Mitsune," is Ōshikōchi no Mitsune, one of the compilers of the Kokin Wakashū and one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

The first line, "if your love for me," takes up Ōyori's words.
The second line, "piles up like the falling snow," is a conditional.
The third line, "I cannot trust it," uses re in its potential sense; the poem breaks here.
The fourth line, "when spring has come and gone," means after spring.
The last line, "I fear it will be no more," places the reason at the end by inversion.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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