子の日する御垣の内の小松原
千代をばほかのものとやは見る
千代をばほかのものとやは見る
- Roma-ji
-
Ne no hi suru mikaki no uchi no komatsubara chiyo oba hoka no mono to ya wa miru
- English Translation
-
On the Day of the Rat,
within the palace's walls
this field of young pines—
a thousand ages as a thing
elsewhere, how could I regard?
- Meaning
- O field of young pines within the palace walls, where we keep the Day of the Rat—how could I think of a thousand ages as belonging anywhere else?
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 728
Headnote: "On the Day of the Rat at the palace in Eihō 4."
This is the second poem of the sequence on young pines. Before the field of young pines within the palace walls on the Day of the Rat, the speaker asks how a thousand ages could be seen as belonging elsewhere. According to the headnote, it was composed at the Day of the Rat observance at the palace in Eihō 4.
The author was a son of Minamoto no Michikata; he rose to Major Counselor and was called the Katsura Major Counselor.
The scene is the Day of the Rat in the First Month of Eihō 4, and the place is within the walls of the palace.
The direct occasion is the Day of the Rat observance held at the palace of Emperor Shirakawa in Eihō 4 (1084).
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 suru," means "keeping the Day of the Rat." The next poem, 729, begins with the same first line, so two poems from the same occasion stand side by side.
The second line, "mikaki no uchi no," means "within the walls surrounding the palace." The Day of the Rat outing, normally held in the fields, takes place here inside the palace.
The third line, "komatsubara," is a field of young pines. It is the same third line as in the preceding poem, 727, and the scene moves from the young pines of Mount Oshio to those within the palace.
The fourth line, "chiyo oba hoka no," means "a thousand ages, as of elsewhere," with "oba" strongly marking the object.
In the last line, "mono to ya wa miru," "ya wa" is rhetorical: "would I see it as something elsewhere? Never." Declaring that the thousand ages are found in this very field of pines within the palace, the poem draws a field observance into the enduring reign within the palace walls.
- Author
- Minamoto no Tsunenobu
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- Awaiting all ages, Matsu-no-o, the mountain of pines, so thick is its shade— it is for you, my lord, I pray: be as lasting as the rock.
- Growing up as one, on the slopes of Mount Oshio this field of young pines— from now, for a thousand years, wait for the shade you will cast.
- From the fields where they hold the Day of the Rat, young pines moved and planted here— with the cord of years stretched long, you, my lord, shall pull them up.
- My lord's reign indeed will surely long endure, as at Watarai the stream of the Isuzu River flows on and never ceases.