神無月紅葉も知らぬ常磐木に
万代かかれ峰の白雲
万代かかれ峰の白雲
- Roma-ji
-
Kannazuki momiji mo shiranu tokiwagi ni yorozuyo kakare mine no shirakumo
- English Translation
-
In the Godless Month,
on the evergreen that knows
no crimson leaves at all,
for ten thousand ages hang,
O white clouds upon the peak.
- Meaning
- On the evergreen tree that knows nothing of crimson leaves even in the Tenth Month, hang for ten thousand ages, O white clouds upon the peak.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 720
Headnote: "For a screen at the house of Lord Teishin."
This poem offers felicitation through an evergreen tree in winter. The speaker bids the white clouds of the peak to hang for ten thousand ages upon the evergreen that knows no crimson leaves even in the Tenth Month. According to the headnote, it was written for a screen at the house of Lord Teishin.
The author was a grandson of Kiyohara no Fukayabu and the father of Sei Shōnagon. He was one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber who compiled the Gosen wakashū and served as Governor of Higo, among other posts.
The scene is early winter in the Tenth Month, and the place is a mountain peak with evergreens, painted on the screen.
The direct occasion is a poem written for a screen at the house of Lord Teishin.
Teishin-kō is the posthumous name of Fujiwara no Tadahira, Regent and Chancellor.
The first line, "Kannazuki," is the Tenth Month of the lunar calendar. It marks the beginning of winter, when autumn leaves fall, and the arrangement of the book moves from the chrysanthemums of autumn to winter.
The second line, "momiji mo shiranu," means "that does not know even crimson leaves." That the tree does not turn color even in the Tenth Month is expressed through the personification of "not knowing."
The third line, "tokiwagi ni," means "on the evergreen tree whose leaves never change color." Following the bamboo of 715 in this book and the pine of 716, permanence is entrusted to unchanging green.
The fourth line, "yorozuyo kakare," means "hang for ten thousand ages," with "kakare" in the imperative. The sense breaks here, after the fourth line.
The last line, "mine no shirakumo," ends on a noun, an inversion that places the one addressed at the very end. Pairing the evergreen that knows no crimson leaves with the white clouds hanging above it, the poem fills an unchanging landscape with felicitation for ten thousand ages.
- Author
- Kiyohara no Motosuke
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- 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?
- The mountain dweller plucks them, fragrant on his sleeve, chrysanthemum dew— even while he brushes it off, a thousand years must pass by.
- The mountain wind, whether it blows or blows not, where the white waves come breaking upon the rock's roots— how long they have endured.
- Without any cloud, on the water's face, clear and dwelling a thousand years, the moon that lodges there— its light, too, is calm and still.