Utagawa Hiroshige

Inscription [text and poems] Urawakaki(translates to)Little titmouse ume o kuguri te(translates to)twisting on the plum branch shijûkara(translates to)glowing with youth haru o sakasa ni(translates to)wants to be upside down kosu kokochi semu(translates to)when the New Year arrivesOku shimo no(translates to) A layer of frost ue ni mo yuki o(translates to)and a cover of snow kasanekite(translates to)slowly deepening kireba kisamu to(translates to)We will melt away oshidori no naku(translates to)cry the mandarin ducks (trans. Marks in Bogel) transliterations changed from those in BogelNotes to the translation in Bogel remark: kire means "to part company" and "to stop snowing"; Kisamu [n.b. Marks reads incorrectly as Keimu] means "will melt" and "will die away"; Naku means "sing" or "weep"; the "cry of the duck" incorporates the Japanese notion that the duck makes a pleasant sound, not a loud quack. Another translation of the poem appears in Shurtleff where the print is published and more appropriately substitutes the phrase "We will perish if we part" for the fourth line of the second stanza:Little chickadee, twisting about the plum tree, glowing with youth, must want to be upside down when New Year's Day arrives.A layer of frost, and on top of that snow, slowly deepening, "We will perish if we part," the mandarin ducks are crying.[notations] two handwritten kyoka poems signed and one sealed Toshigaki Maharu