Kamiyoyori kyōnotametoya yatsukahoni nagatanoineno shinaisomekemu

English Translation

Since the age of gods,
was it for this day alone
that in heavy ears
the rice of Nagata began
to bend its long stalks over

Meaning

Was it for this very day, ever since the age of the gods, that the rice of Nagata began to bow with the weight of its long ears?

Commentary

Book One: Odoro no Shita

Go-Toba, the eighty-second sovereign, was the fourth son of Takakura. After the Taira fled west with the child emperor Antoku, the Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa summoned his grandsons to look at them; the third prince wept and would not go near him, but the fourth prince climbed at once onto his knee and seemed fond of him, so the Cloistered Emperor exclaimed that here was a true grandson, and in the eighth month of Juei 2 set him on the throne at the age of four. The sacred sword had gone down into the sea with the former emperor, so that for the first time an accession took place without the three regalia. After the Cloistered Emperor's death Go-Toba ruled in his own right; the realm was at peace and the way of poetry flourished. In Kenkyu 9, at nineteen, he abdicated to Tsuchimikado and began his cloistered rule, building a villa at Minase where he spent himself on the pleasures of the seasons. He held the poetry contest in fifteen hundred rounds, established the Bureau of Poetry, had the Shinkokinshu compiled, and held its celebratory banquet in Genkyu 2. In Jogen 4 he set Tsuchimikado aside and raised Juntoku to the throne, and Juntoku too gave himself to poetry. At Minase the retired emperor played go and small archery, explained the old precedent of the stakes, and had a guardsman prepare the dish described by Murasaki Shikibu—in everything he showed the range of his gifts. At the selected poetry contest of Kempo 2, Fujiwara no Hideyoshi of the Northern Guard was called on for nine poems; the Yoshimizu bishop Jien offered the retired emperor a long poem, and Teika wrote a long poem in reply on the spot. The new retired emperor Tsuchimikado composed a hundred poems privately, showed them to Ietaka and Teika, and exchanged poems with Teika.
Go-Toba's personal name was Takahira; he was the fourth son of Takakura, and his mother was Shichijoin, daughter of Nobutaka, Master of the Office of Palace Repairs. Tsuchimikado's personal name was Tamehito, and his mother was Shomeimon'in, daughter of the priest Noen and adopted daughter of the Inner Minister Michichika. Juntoku's personal name was Morinari, and his mother was Shumeimon'in. The regent Kujo Yoshitsune was called a saint of poetry, and the compilers of the Shinkokinshu were Michitomo, Ariie, Teika, Ietaka and Masatsune. The Middle Counselor Kanemitsu, Fujiwara no Kanemitsu, and the Middle Counselor Sukezane, Fujiwara no Sukezane, were each called on for screen poems at an accession thanksgiving. Kunaikyo was descended from Emperor Murakami through the Minister of the Left Toshifusa, and was the daughter of a man who died holding only the fourth rank. Fujiwara no Hideyoshi served in the retired emperor's Northern Guard, and the Yoshimizu bishop Jien was a poet-monk who long held the office of Tendai abbot.
In the eleventh month of Genryaku 1 the accession thanksgiving of Emperor Go-Toba was held at the palace, with the province of Tanba serving as the secondary region.
The Middle Counselor Kanemitsu, called on for the screen poems of that region, composed this on the village of Nagata in Tanba.
The narrative goes on from here to say that the child emperor was bright beyond his years and dear to the Cloistered Emperor, and moves to his first reading and his coming of age.

The first line fixes a starting point and lifts the growing of rice into something continuous with the age of the gods. The interrogative particle in the second line answers the auxiliary of past conjecture at the close, asking whether all of it was for this day. The third line, ears eight handspans long, is a word of blessing for abundance. The fourth line writes in the place name of Nagata while letting the sense of long-growing rice sound through it. The closing verb, to bend under weight, belongs with the heavy ears of the third line. As befits a screen poem for the thanksgiving, it describes a landscape and at the same time blesses the new reign in advance, standing in the same mould as the screen poem for Juntoku's thanksgiving, "Suganoneno nagaranoyamano minenomatsu fukikurukazemo yorozuyonokoe".

Author

Fujiwara no Kanemitsu

Source

Masukagami

Other