Kimigayoni sekiiruruniwao yukumizuno iwakosukazuwa chiyomomiekeri

English Translation

In my lord's reign
the water drawn and dammed
crosses the garden,
and in the count of stones it clears
a thousand ages can be seen

Meaning

In my lord's reign the water led into the garden runs on, and in the number of rocks it passes over one can see a thousand ages.

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; among the poems the Middle Captain Teika then offered, this one is placed directly after the poem on the young pine on the ridge. No fresh attribution is given for it.
With these two poems the passage on the Minase villa closes, and the narrative turns to the birth and accession of the reigning emperor Tsuchimikado.

The first line sets the reign and holds the whole in a frame of blessing. The second describes the making of the stream, water dammed and drawn into the garden, and so marks the place as fashioned by human hands. The third line puts the running water in place and carries into the lower lines. The fourth counts the stones the stream passes over, and the exclamatory auxiliary at the close declares that in that number the length of a thousand ages is visible. A countable thing before the eye, the rocks the water clears, stands in for a stretch of time no one can measure. Where the preceding poem reaches a thousand years through the age of a pine, this one reaches a thousand ages through the number of stones, and the words for damming, running water and crossing rocks are all linked through water, so that the construction of the garden itself becomes the language of praise.

Author

Fujiwara no Teika

Source

Masukagami

Other