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

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

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