Kusa fukaki kasumi no tani ni hagukumaru uguisu nomi ya mukashi kouramu

草深き霞の谷にはぐくまる
鶯のみや昔恋ふらむ

Roma-ji: Kusa fukaki kasumi no tani ni hagukumaru uguisu nomi ya mukashi kouramu
English Translation: In the grassy depths
of the hazy valley where
it was raised with care,
is it the warbler alone
that longs for the days of old?
Meaning: Is it only the warbler, raised in the deep grass of the hazy valley, that yearns for the days of old?
Commentary: Spring Poems 14

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The warbler"
The poet asks whether only the warbler raised in the grassy, hazy valley longs for the past, letting it show that he himself shares the feeling. This continues the nostalgia of the preceding poem, and Kamo no Mabuchi judged that the poet must have had a reason to think of the past when composing the pair.
The Ruijū text places it among the miscellaneous poems and reads the third line as harugomoru ("secluded in spring"); the Teika text also differs in the third line. One character in the last line of the base text is hard to read, so the common reading mukashi kouramu has been adopted.

Line 1, kusa fukaki ("grassy depths"), answers fukakusa in the preceding poem, 13, with the order reversed, marking the pairing.
Line 2, "the hazy valley," combines haze, a key motif of early spring, with the warbler's valley.
Line 3: hagukumaru means to be raised or nurtured with care.
Line 4: nomi ("alone") limits and ya poses a question, implying "only the warbler? No, I too."
Line 5: ramu in the attributive form concludes the ya construction. Taking up "Ah, the past" from the preceding poem, it deepens the nostalgia in the form of a question.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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