Warblers

Left (Win)

うぐひすのこゑなかりせばゆききえぬやまざといかではるをしらまし

uguisu no koe nakariseba yuki kienu yamazato to ikade haru o shiramashi

Should the warbler’s Song be made to cease, then though The snow has vanished from This mountain retreat, how Would one know ‘tis spring?

Nakatsukasa
7[i]

Right

かがみやまはるくるかげやみえつらむたにのうぐひすいでてなくなり

kagamiyama haru kuru kage ya mietsuramu tani no uguisu idete naku nari

Upon Mirror Mountain Signs of coming spring Have appeared, it seems, for In the valleys warblers Have emerged to sing.

8

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[i] This poem is included in Shūishū (I: 10), attributed to Middle Counsellor [Fujiwara no] Asatada, with the headnote ‘From a palace poetry match on the 29^th day of the Third Month, Tenryaku 10’ [12.5.956]. It is also included in Shūishō (I: 6) as an anonymous poem in some texts, or attributed to Nakatsukasa in others, with the headnote ‘When a poetry match was held at the palace on the 29^th day of the Third Month, Tenryaku 10’.