Matsu no ue ni naku uguisu no koe o koso hatsune no hi to wa iu bekarikere - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

松の上に鳴く鶯の声をこそ
はつねの日とは言ふべかりけれ

Roma-ji: Matsu no ue ni naku uguisu no koe o koso hatsune no hi to wa iu bekarikere
English Translation: It is the voice
of the warbler singing out
upon the pine tree
that we ought to call the day
of the first song, the first Rat.
Meaning: Surely it is the voice of the warbler singing on the pine that ought to be called the first Rat day, the day of the first song.
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems 22

Headnote: "When a person called Kunai, serving the Grand Empress, was still a child and was in attendance before Emperor Daigo, a bush warbler sang in the five-needled pine before him, and on the first Day of the Rat in the first month she composed this"
When a warbler sang in the five-needled pine before the emperor on the first Day of the Rat in the first month, the girl improvised that the warbler's first song on the pine is what truly deserves to be called the "first Rat day." The wit of combining the pine of the Day of the Rat with the warbler's first song in a single poem shines through. According to the headnote, when Kunai, who served the Grand Empress Fujiwara no Onshi, was still a young girl in attendance before Emperor Daigo, a warbler sang in the five-needled pine before him, and she composed and presented this poem on the first Day of the Rat.
Kunai was a lady-in-waiting who served Emperor Daigo's consort Fujiwara no Onshi; little is known of her life.

First line, "matsu no ue ni," points to the top of the five-needled pine before the emperor, evoking the small pines pulled up on the Day of the Rat.
Second line, "naku uguisu no," shows the warbler singing on the pine branch, continuing the flow of warbler poems in this book.
Third line, "koe o koso," uses the emphatic particle "koso," resolved by the perfective "kere" in the final line.
Fourth line, "hatsune no hi to wa," is a pivot word combining "hatsune" as the first Day of the Rat in the new year and "hatsune" as the warbler's first song.
Final line, "iu bekarikere," expresses the realization "this is what should have been so called," closing in the perfective form in response to "koso."
Author: Kunai
Source: Shui Wakashu
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