Kakikurashi nao furu yuki no samukereba haru to mo shiranu tani no uguisu

かきくらしなほ降る雪の寒ければ
春とも知らぬ谷の鶯

Roma-ji: Kakikurashi nao furu yuki no samukereba haru to mo shiranu tani no uguisu
English Translation: Darkening the sky,
the snow keeps falling still, so
bitter is the cold
that it knows not spring is here—
the warbler deep in the vale.
Meaning: Snow still falls from a darkened sky, and it is so cold that the warbler in the valley does not even know that spring has come.
Commentary: Spring Poems 5

Headnote: "The beginning of spring"
Spring has come by the calendar, yet snow keeps falling, and the warbler in the valley has not yet noticed the new season. Taking the warbler's point of view, the poem captures this gap between calendar and weather, and a heart waiting for spring shows through. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a circle.
In the Ruijū text the headnote reads "Composed on snow falling at the beginning of spring." The idea that it cannot be spring until the warbler sings recalls Mibu no Tadamine's poem in the Kokin Wakashū, which says that though people claim spring has come, he cannot believe it while the warbler is silent.

Line 1, kakikurashi ("darkening the sky"), means darkening the whole sky, here covered with snow clouds.
Line 2: nao ("still") means that the snow continues even though spring has come.
Line 3, "so bitter is the cold": the realis form of the adjective with ba gives the reason, the cold of the snow.
Line 4, "it knows not spring is here," personifies the warbler. In contrast to the singing warbler of the preceding poem, 4, this warbler does not yet know it is spring.
Line 5, "the warbler deep in the vale," ends on a noun, leaving lingering feeling with the bird hidden in the valley.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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