Takakiya ni noborite mireba keburi tatsu tami no kamado wa nigiwai ni keri

English Translation

Climbing up to the
lofty tower, I look out:
smoke is rising high—
from the hearths of all my folk,
plenty now has come to them.

Meaning

When I climb the high tower and look out, smoke is rising everywhere; the hearths of my people have grown prosperous at last.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitation Poems 707

Headnote: "On seeing the land grown rich after the tribute had been remitted."
This is the opening poem of Felicitation Poems in the Shin kokin wakashū. Looking out from a tall tower, the speaker sees smoke rising from the people's hearths and rejoices that their lives have become prosperous. According to the headnote, it was composed on seeing how rich the land had grown after the tribute, that is, the taxes, had been remitted.
The author is traditionally counted as the sixteenth emperor. He is said to have been the son of Emperor Ōjin and to have ruled from the Takatsu Palace at Naniwa.
The scene is the reign of Emperor Nintoku, after the remission of levies had made the land rich, and the place is a tall tower of the Takatsu Palace at Naniwa.
The direct occasion is an episode recorded in the Nihon shoki. Climbing a high terrace, the emperor saw no smoke rising from the people's houses, understood their poverty, and remitted all levies for three years. Later, when he climbed the terrace again, smoke was rising in abundance.
The poem is also included in the Wakan rōeishū. Among the poems composed at the banquet concluding the lectures on the Nihon shoki in Engi 6 (906), there is a similar poem by Fujiwara no Tokihira: "Takadono ni noborite mireba ame no shita yomo ni keburite ima zo tominuru."

The first line, "takakiya ni," means "to a high building." It refers to a tall tower, the place from which the state of the land is surveyed.
The second line, "noborite mireba," means "when I climb and look." The particle "ba," attached to the realis form, expresses the confirmed condition "when I looked." The poem takes the form of kunimi, the survey of the land from on high.
The third line, "keburi tatsu," brings a pause in meaning, a break after the third line. The smoke is the smoke of cooking fires, and its abundance is the sign of the people's livelihood.
The fourth line, "tami no kamado wa," means "the hearths of the people." The emperor's gaze turns toward the lives of his subjects.
In the last line, "nigiwai ni keri," "ni keri" combines the perfective "nu" and the exclamatory "keri," expressing the fresh wonder of realizing that prosperity has come. By opening with a poem in which a ruler rejoices in his people's plenty, the book of felicitations begins by celebrating a reign of virtue.

Author

Emperor Nintoku

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other