Ariekemu motonochitoseni furimosede wagakimichigiru minenowakamatsu

English Translation

Through the thousand years
it must have passed already
it has not grown old—
the young pine on the ridge, with which
my lord now binds his promise

Meaning

Unaged by the thousand years it must already have lived, the young pine on the ridge with which my lord binds his long promise.

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.
The Minase villa had thatched galleries and covered walks built long and elegantly; a waterfall was led down from the hill before it, and the mossy mountain trees and the young pines whose branches crossed in the garden made it truly a cave of mist holding a thousand years.
When the planting was being tended, many people were summoned and there was music; afterwards the Middle Captain Teika, still low in rank, offered this poem to the retired emperor.
A second poem follows it, "Kimigayoni sekiiruruniwao yukumizuno iwakosukazuwa chiyomomiekeri", so that pine and garden stream are paired in praise of the Minase landscape.

The first line, with its auxiliary of past conjecture, supposes years already gone by. The second names the thousand years natural to a pine, and the third denies aging with a negative connective, making the paradox that a thousand years have passed and yet nothing has grown old. In the fourth line my lord is the retired emperor, and the verb is that of binding a long promise. The poem closes on a noun, the young pine, so that youth and a thousand years are laid together and the blessing rests in the idea of remaining young through the ages. The small pines of the garden stand for the flourishing of the reign, and thousand years, growing old and young pine are all bound to the pine. Taken with the poem that follows it, the two things of the garden, pine and running water, together bless the reign.

Author

Fujiwara no Teika

Source

Masukagami

Other