Aoyagi o kataito ni yorite uguisu no nuu chō kasa wa ume no hanagasa - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

青柳を片糸に縒りて鶯の
縫ふてふ笠は梅の花笠

Roma-ji: Aoyagi o kataito ni yorite uguisu no nuu chō kasa wa ume no hanagasa
English Translation: Green willow branches
twisted into single thread,
the bush warbler
sews a hat, they say, and that hat
is a hat of plum blossoms.
Meaning: Twisting the green willow into thread, the bush warbler sews a hat, they say, and the hat is made of plum blossoms.
Commentary: Book Twenty Poems of the Bureau of Court Song 1081

Headnote: "Kagura Songs: Kaeshimono Song"
A playful spring song that pictures the bush warbler twisting willow shoots into thread to sew a hat of plum blossoms. The bird darting among willow branches and alighting in the plum blossoms is imagined as a seamstress at work. No author is recorded.
Kaeshimono songs are thought to be songs sung in a changed musical mode within the kagura. They run from poem 1081 to 1086, and from 1082 onward each of the five carries a left-hand note saying it was presented by a province at a Great Thanksgiving Festival (daijōe).
The saibara song "Aoyagi" has "Twisting green willow into single thread, the hat the warbler sews, they say, is a hat of plum blossoms," showing that it was widely sung as a court song.

The first line, "green willow," names the slender new shoots, the material to be seen as thread.
The second line, "twisted into single thread," treats the willow branches as kataito, a single strand before plying; the line has an extra syllable.
The third line, "the bush warbler," names the one who sews, personifying the bird as a seamstress.
The fourth line, "the hat it sews, they say," uses chō, contracted from to iu, for hearsay.
The last line, "a hat of plum blossoms," reveals the conceit, ending on a noun.
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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