A thousand years long
your life shall run—and hoping
for as much, the vine
of wisteria has come
to hang on the pine's branches

Meaning

Your life shall run a thousand years—and hoping for as much itself, the wisteria has come to hang upon the branches of the pine.

Commentary

Volume Four: The Return

　The day after they reached Shikina was the first of the fourth month. Someone remarked that it was the day of the change of robes, and the company, thinking of the capital, passed the time with music.
　Then a deep-colored wisteria was seen flowering against a pine on the shore. The Retired Emperor looked at it, summoned the Major Counselor Takasue, and told him to send someone to break off the flower. A clerk of the left, Nakahara no Yasusada, happened to be rowing past the imperial presence in a small boat and was called and sent. He broke off the wisteria and brought it back with the pine branch still attached. That shows some thought, the Retired Emperor said, and was pleased.
　Then he commanded a poem on the flower, and the Major Counselor Takasue answered with this. The party went on by way of Kojima in Bizen and the Yamada shore in Harima to Fukuhara, and reached the capital on the eighth of the fourth month.

　Wisteria is a flower that hangs downward; the pine is the emblem of a thousand years. The one hanging on the other is read as the wisteria seeking a share in the sovereign's long life. The construction is that of a standard congratulatory verse, but it uses only what was actually in front of them, and that is the merit of an impromptu poem.
　There is a further layer. The poet is a Fujiwara, and fuji is his own name. The wisteria is thus also the Fujiwara house, the subject; the pine is the sovereign. Subject depending on sovereign is the figure laid quietly under the congratulation. That it was the Retired Emperor who ordered the flower broken off, and that bringing it back still attached to the pine was praised as a clever touch, both support the reading.
　Emperor Takakura died the year after this progress, at twenty-one. The thousand years wished for him amounted to less than one. His death is told in Volume Six.

chitose hen……will pass a thousand years.
yowai……one's span of years.
fujinami……wisteria in flower, its swaying likened to waves.
kakarinuru……has come to hang; with an overtone of "to share in."
Uzuki tsuitachi……the first day of the fourth lunar month, when robes were changed.
sashishō……a low-ranking official who drafted and copied documents.
kokorobase……thoughtfulness; a well-judged touch.
Takasue no Dainagon……Fujiwara no Takasue, founder of the Shijō house.

Source

Heike Monogatari

Other

A thousand years long your life shall run—and hoping for as much, the vine of wisteria has come to hang on the pine's branches

A thousand years long
your life shall run—and hoping
for as much, the vine
of wisteria has come
to hang on the pine's branches