Hanahada mo furanu yuki yue kochitaku mo amatsu misora wa kumorainitsutsu

はなはだも降らぬ雪ゆゑこちたくも
天つみ空は雲らひにつつ

Roma-ji: Hanahada mo furanu yuki yue kochitaku mo amatsu misora wa kumorainitsutsu
English Translation: Though it will not fall
greatly, just a little snow,
how extravagant,
all across the heavenly sky
clouds keep gathering, dim and grey.
Meaning: For snow that hardly falls at all, the heavens are so extravagantly clouded over.
Commentary: Book Ten Winter Miscellaneous Poems 2322

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Snow"
This poem sings of the sky clouding over extravagantly for a snow that hardly falls. The sky clouding so grandly compared to the scant snow carries a light humor. Like the snow that keeps melting in the sky in 2317, it sings of snow that does not truly fall.

The first line, "hanahada mo," means greatly.
In the second line, "furanu yuki yue," "yue" is here taken as adversative: though it is snow that does not fall.
The third line, "kochitaku mo," means extravagantly.
In the fourth line, "amatsu misora wa," "mi" is an honorific prefix: the sky.
In the last line, "kumorainitsutsu," "kumorau" means to keep clouding over and "tsutsu" marks continuation.
Source: Manyoshu
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