Hashitaka no kyō ya shirafu ni kawaruramu tokaeru yama ni yuki no furereba

はし鷹の今日やしらふに変はるらむ
とかへる山に雪の降れれば

Roma-ji: Hashitaka no kyō ya shirafu ni kawaruramu tokaeru yama ni yuki no furereba
English Translation: The sparrow hawk—
will it turn today, I wonder,
to feathers flecked with white?
For on the mountain where it molts
the snow has fallen now.
Meaning: Will the sparrow hawk's feathers turn white-flecked today, I wonder? For snow has fallen on the mountain where it molts its plumage.
Commentary: Winter Poems 377

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Snow"
Because snow has fallen on the mountain where hawks change their plumage, the poet wonders whether the sparrow hawk's feathers will turn white-flecked today. He overlays the mountain whitened by snow with the changing of the hawk's feathers.
The Ruijū text gives the headnote as "Composed on a hawk" and lines 1 and 2 as hashitaka mo kyō wa, and the Teika text gives hashitaka mo kyō ya. This edition follows the source text.

Line 1 names the sparrow hawk, a kind of hawk.
Line 2: ya is an interrogative binding particle concluded in line 3; shirafu is the white flecking on a hawk's feathers.
Line 3 concludes ya with the attributive of the present conjectural ramu, and the poem pauses here.
Line 4: tokaeru is the molting of a hawk's feathers, and the mountain whitening in the snow is likened to the change of the hawk's plumage.
Line 5 is the same as that of the preceding poem, giving the reason for supposing the hawk will turn white-flecked.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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