池水の世々に久しくすみぬれば
底の玉藻も光見えけり
底の玉藻も光見えけり
- Roma-ji
-
Ikemizu no yoyo ni hisashiku suminureba soko no tamamo mo hikari mie keri
- English Translation
-
The water of the pond,
through the ages, for so long
has dwelt and grown clear,
that the jewel weeds on its floor
are seen to glimmer with light.
- Meaning
- Because the pond water has dwelt and stayed clear so long through the ages, even the jewel-like weeds on its floor can be seen to shine.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 723
Headnote: "On the topic 'Pond Water' at the Palace Poetry Contest of Eishō 4."
This is the second poem of the sequence celebrating the reign through clear water and the light of the sky. Because the pond water has stayed clear so long through the ages, even the jewel weeds on its floor are seen to shine. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Pond Water" at the palace poetry contest of Eishō 4.
The author was a daughter of Ōnakatomi no Sukechika, Head of the Office of Divinities, and served Shōshi, consort of Emperor Ichijō.
The scene is a landscape set by a composition topic with no season specified, and the place is a pond brimming with clear water.
The direct occasion is a composition on the topic "Pond Water" at the poetry contest held in the palace of Emperor Go-Reizei in Eishō 4 (1049).
The first line, "ikemizu no," means "the water of the pond." Taking up "the face of the water" of the preceding poem, 722, the pond scene continues.
The second line, "yoyo ni hisashiku," means "long through the ages." The long years of the pond water are laid over the length of the reign.
In the third line, "suminureba," "sumi" is a pivot word meaning both that the water is clear and that it dwells on. "Nureba," the realis of the perfective "nu" with "ba," gives the reason: "because it has become clear." It is the same pivot word as "chitose ni sumeru" in the preceding poem, and the two poems form a pair.
The fourth line, "soko no tamamo mo," means "even the lovely weeds on the pond floor." The perfect clarity of the water is shown by the fact that one can see to the bottom.
In the last line, "hikari mie keri," "keri" is exclamatory. Whereas the preceding poem sang of moonlight lodged on the surface, this poem sings of the shine of weeds on the floor, forming a contrast of surface and depth.
- Author
- Ise no Taifu
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- 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.
- Of my lord's great reign, even the count of thousand years is hidden no more— in the light of the cloudless sky I see it there, shining clear.
- At Suminoe, on the pine that grows and grows, in each of its boughs the count of my lord's thousand years lies held within, laid away.