千歳経る尾上の松は秋風の
声こそ変はれ色は変はらず
声こそ変はれ色は変はらず
- Roma-ji
-
Chitose furu onoe no matsu wa akikaze no koe koso kaware iro wa kawarazu
- English Translation
-
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.
- Meaning
- The pine on the mountain peak that has stood a thousand years—its voice in the autumn wind may change, but its color never does.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 716
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on evergreen color. The pine on the peak that has stood a thousand years may change its voice in the autumn wind, but its color does not change. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author lived in the early Heian period, held posts such as Junior Clerk of Kai and Provisional Secretary of Awaji, and served with Ki no Tsurayuki and others as a compiler of the Kokin wakashū.
The scene is autumn, and the place is a mountain with a pine standing on its peak.
The direct occasion is not recorded.
The first line, "chitose furu," means "that has passed a thousand years." Taking up "through the passing ages" of the preceding poem, the long years continue through the verb of passing.
The second line, "onoe no matsu wa," means "the pine on the peak." The figure of a pine standing high and catching the wind is presented.
The third line, "akikaze no," leads on to "koe," voice, in the next line. The season turns to autumn, and the arrangement of the book likewise moves from spring scenes to autumn scenes.
In the fourth line, "koe koso kaware," the emphatic particle "koso" is concluded by the realis form "kaware." Because the sentence continues after this koso-realis ending, it becomes concessive: "the voice changes, yet." The sound of wind in the pine changes with the seasons.
The last line, "iro wa kawarazu," means "its color does not change." Setting "voice" against "color" and "changes" against "does not change," the poem places a shifting sound beside an unchanging color. Using the same words as "has not changed" in 712 in this book and "the color that never changes" in the preceding poem, it repeats the conceit of seeing permanence in evergreen.
- Author
- Oshikochi no Mitsune
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- 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.
- 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 mountain river, the stream beneath chrysanthemums— why is it, I ask, that while flowing, for us all it holds back the coming of age?
- Praying all the while for longer still, in the Long Month, chrysanthemum blooms— in which of all the autumns would I not plant them to see?