子の日して標めつる野辺の姫小松
引かでや千代の蔭を待たまし
引かでや千代の蔭を待たまし
- Roma-ji
-
Ne no hi shite shimetsuru nobe no himekomatsu hikade ya chiyo no kage o matamashi
- English Translation
-
On the Day of the Rat,
in the field I roped off as mine
the little pine grows—
shall I not pull it, and for its
thousand-year shade simply wait?
- Meaning
- The little pine in the field I roped off as my own on the Day of the Rat—shall I leave it unpulled and wait for the shade it will cast a thousand years from now?
- Commentary
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Book Seven Felicitation Poems 709
Headnote: "Composed on the Day of the Rat."
This is the second poem of the sequence on the first Day of the Rat in the New Year. Rather than pulling up the little pine in the field roped off on that day, the speaker wonders whether to wait for it to become a thousand-year shade. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of the Day of the Rat.
The author was a son of Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Kanesuke and served as Governor of Kii, among other posts. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The scene is the Day of the Rat in the First Month, and the place is a field where young pines grow.
The direct occasion is a composition on the topic "Day of the Rat."
The Day of the Rat outing was a New Year observance in which people went out into the fields on the first Day of the Rat to pull up young pines and pick young greens, celebrating long life.
The first line, "ne no hi shite," means "holding the Day of the Rat outing." Taking up "today, the first Day of the Rat" of the preceding poem, 708, it continues the observance.
In the second line, "shimetsuru nobe no," "shimu" means to rope off ground as one's own, and "tsuru," a perfective auxiliary, shows that the field has already been marked.
The third line, "himekomatsu," is a small young pine. It is the kind of pine pulled on the Day of the Rat, and its youthfulness sets up a contrast with the thousand-year shade.
In the fourth line, "hikade ya chiyo no," "hikade" means "without pulling," and "ya" expresses a question. Pulling young pines was the custom of the day, and the poem deliberately turns against that convention. "Chiyo no" leads on to "kage" in the last line.
In the last line, "kage o matamashi," "mashi" expresses an intention mixed with hesitation: "shall I wait?" By waiting until the little pine grows through a thousand years into a tree that casts shade, the poem stretches the celebration of a single day to the scale of a millennium.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Kiyotada
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- 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.
- In the early spring, the first Day of the Rat, today, the jeweled broom— as soon as I take it in hand, the jewels on their cord chime.
- Of my lord's long reign the number of all the years— in pure, snowy white as fine sand upon the beach, who was it that spread them out?
- Where young greens spring up, every field that's called a field, all for my dear lord, roping off for ten thousand ages, I will pick the greens, I think.