しほの山さしでの磯に住む千鳥
君が御世をば八千代とぞなく
君が御世をば八千代とぞなく
- Roma-ji
-
Shio no yama Sashide no iso ni sumu chidori
kimi ga miyo o ba yachiyo to zo naku - English Translation
-
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
- Meaning
- At the jutting shore of Shio-no-yama, the plovers that dwell there seem to cry “eight thousand years,” for the span of your reign.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitations
This poem takes the cry of the plover as sounding like “eight thousand years,” and expresses a wish that the recipient’s life may long endure.
“Shio-no-yama” is a place name of uncertain location, and “the jutting shore” is sometimes thought to refer to a riverbank such as that of the Fuefuki River in present-day Yamanashi.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- may my lord endure for a thousand, eight thousand years— until pebbles small grow into mighty boulders and moss comes thick upon them
- 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
- 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
- thus as I am now in one way or another I live lingering on still— if only there were a way to meet your eight thousand years