Yama fukami yaku sumigama no keburi koso yagate yukige no kumo to narikere - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山深み焼く炭がまの煙こそ
やがて雪げの雲となりけれ

Roma-ji: Yama fukami yaku sumigama no keburi koso yagate yukige no kumo to narikere
English Translation: So deep in the hills,
from the kilns where charcoal burns
it is the smoke
that, just as it is, becomes
the clouds that promise snow.
Meaning: So deep are these mountains that the smoke rising from the charcoal kilns becomes, just as it is, the clouds that herald snow.
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 153

Headnote: "Composed when presenting a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa."
Smoke from the charcoal kilns of the deep mountains rises and turns straight into snow clouds. The work of the winter village and the look of the sky are seen as one continuous scene, and in a book moving from hail to snow, these snow-bearing clouds bridge to the poem on the first snowfall.
According to the headnote it comes from the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequence, but the text of that sequence assigns it to Minamoto no Kunizane, so the attribution varies.

First line, “yama fukami”: “because the mountains are deep,” the same opening as 144, moving from a mountain of showers on fallen leaves to one of charcoal burning.
Second line, “yaku sumigama no”: the charcoal kilns, emblematic of the winter mountain village.
Third line, “keburi koso”: “koso” calls for the realis “kere” at the close.
Fourth line, “yagate yukige no”: “yagate,” “just as it is,” and “yukige,” the feel of coming snow.
Fifth line, “kumo to narikere”: “kere” completes the construction, voicing the discovery that smoke becomes cloud.
Author: Oe no Masafusa
Source: Shika Wakashu
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