渡津海の浜の真砂を数えつつ
君がちとせのあり数にせむ
君がちとせのあり数にせむ
- Roma-ji
-
Watatsuumi no hama no masago o kazoetsutsu
kimi ga chitose no arikazu ni semu - English Translation
-
counting one by one
the grains of sand upon the shore
of the wide sea’s edge—
let them be the numbered years
of your long enduring life
- Meaning
- Counting the grains of sand along the seashore, let them be the measure of your long enduring years.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitations
This poem celebrates the recipient with an exaggerated image, likening the countless grains of sand upon the shore to the number of years of their long life.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- how I regret it the year that now is passing on— in this polished mirror even the reflected self seems to fade into the dusk
- may my lord endure for a thousand, eight thousand years— until pebbles small grow into mighty boulders and moss comes thick upon them
- on Shio-no-yama at the jutting shore of the strand where plovers abide— they seem to cry “eight thousand years” for the span of your noble reign
- let my span of years be added to your eight thousand— if it may be so then keep what thus remains as a memory of me