Yuki no iro o nusumite sakeru unohana wa saete ya hito ni utagawaruramu - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

雪の色を盗みて咲ける卯の花は
冴えてや人に疑はるらむ

Roma-ji: Yuki no iro o nusumite sakeru unohana wa saete ya hito ni utagawaruramu
English Translation: Having stolen
the very color of the snow,
the deutzia blooms—
so bright and cold, would people
not suspect it of the theft?
Meaning: The deutzia flowers bloom in a white stolen from the snow itself; so cold and clear is their whiteness that people must surely suspect them of the theft.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 52

The poet likens the whiteness of deutzia, which blooms in early summer, to snow, and personifies the flowers as having "stolen" its color. He amuses himself by imagining the blossoms as culprits whose very whiteness gives them away.
A poem by Fujiwara no Kinzane in the Summer book of the Kin'yōshū also describes deutzia blooming with the color of snow taken from it, showing that this comparison was a favored conceit of the time. Following the change of robes in poem 51, deutzia appears here as an emblem of early summer.

First line, "the color of the snow," is hypermetric and begins the comparison of the flowers to snow.
Second line, "having stolen," personifies the flowers.
Third line presents the deutzia, the white flower of early summer, as the subject.
Fourth line uses saete, "cold and clear," a word that carries the quality of snow itself. The particle ya marks a question.
Fifth line combines the passive ru with the present conjecture ramu, which takes the attributive form in concord with ya.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Shika Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kyō yori wa tatsu natsugoromo usuku tomo atsushi to nomi ya omoiwataramu
Next Poem: Toshi o hete kakeshi aoi wa kawaranedo kyō no kazashi wa mezurashiki kana