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.
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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 29th 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 29th day of the Third Month, Tenryaku 10’.
[2] A minor variant of this poem occurs in Kokinshū (I: 14), attributed to Ōe no Chisato: 鶯の谷よりいづる声なくは春来ることを誰かしらまし uguisu no / tani yori izuru / koe naku wa / haru kuru koto o / tare ka shiramashi ‘If the bush-warbler / From the valleys / Did not sing his song, / That spring is coming / Would anyone realise at all?’; also Shinsen man’yōshū 261.
