住の江の浜の真砂を踏む鶴は
久しき跡をとむるなりけり
久しき跡をとむるなりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Suminoe no hama no masago o fumu tazu wa hisashiki ato o tomuru nari keri
- English Translation
-
On Suminoe's shore,
upon the fine sand of the beach,
the cranes that tread there
are leaving long-lasting tracks
behind them, so it seems.
- Meaning
- The cranes that tread the fine sand on the beach of Suminoe are, I see, leaving behind them tracks that will long endure.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 714
Headnote: "For a screen for the fiftieth-year celebration of the Empress of Shichijō."
This poem offers felicitation through cranes. The speaker sees that the cranes treading the fine sand on the beach of Suminoe are leaving long-lasting tracks. According to the headnote, it was written for a screen for the fiftieth-year celebration of the Empress of Shichijō.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tsugukage, Governor of Ise, and served Fujiwara no Onshi, consort of Emperor Uda. She is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.
The scene has no season specified, and the place is the beach of Suminoe painted on the screen.
The direct occasion is a poem written for a screen prepared for a fiftieth-year celebration.
"The Empress of Shichijō" is a name referring to Fujiwara no Onshi. A fiftieth-year celebration was one of the celebrations of longevity held for a person reaching the age of fifty.
The first line, "Suminoe no," means "of Suminoe," a poetic place in Settsu Province. Suminoe was the seashore around present-day Sumiyoshi Ward in Osaka, sung together with its pines and beach as the seat of the Sumiyoshi deity.
The second line, "hama no masago o," means "the fine sand of the beach." In 710 in this book as well, "the fine sand of the beach" is likened to the years of the lord's reign, and the countless grains serve in both as a sign of long duration.
The third line, "fumu tazu wa," means "the cranes that tread the sand." Cranes, said to live a thousand years, are placed on the painted beach.
The fourth line, "hisashiki ato o," means "tracks that long remain." The footprints of cranes left in the sand are overlaid with the sign of long years.
In the last line, "tomuru nari keri," "tomu" means to leave and preserve tracks. "Nari keri" combines assertion and exclamation, taking the form of a realization that the cranes walk the beach in order to leave long-lasting tracks. Pairing the long-lived bird with countless grains of sand, the poem conveys a longevity fitting for a fiftieth-year celebration.
- Author
- Ise
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- The sacred cord sash— as it's hung, a thousand years on the rugged hills the color of mountain indigo has not changed in the least.
- In my lord's long reign the springs that we are to meet are many, and so, though they scatter, cherry blooms I will gaze on to my fill.
- Year after year bamboo springs up, joint on joint, through the passing ages— this color that never changes, whose could I take it to be?
- The pine on the peak that has stood a thousand years— in the autumn wind its voice may change, it is true, but its color changes not.