子の日する野辺の小松を移し植ゑて
年の緒長く君ぞ引くべき
年の緒長く君ぞ引くべき
- Roma-ji
-
Ne no hi suru nobe no komatsu o utsushi uete toshi no o nagaku kimi zo hikubeki
- English Translation
-
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.
- Meaning
- The young pines from the fields of the Day of the Rat have been moved and replanted here; along the long cord of the years, it is you, my lord, who shall pull them up.
- Commentary
-
Book Seven Felicitation Poems 729
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the Day of the Rat at the palace in Eihō 4."
This is the third poem of the sequence on young pines. The young pines of the Day of the Rat fields have been moved and replanted, and it is the lord who shall pull them up through the long years. According to the headnote, like the preceding poem, it was composed at the Day of the Rat observance at the palace in Eihō 4.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Tsunehira; he rose to Provisional Middle Counselor and compiled the Goshūi wakashū by command of Emperor Shirakawa.
The scene is the Day of the Rat in the First Month of Eihō 4, and the place is the palace where the young pines were replanted.
The direct occasion is the Day of the Rat observance held at the palace of Emperor Shirakawa in Eihō 4 (1084).
The first line, "ne no hi suru," is the same first line as in the preceding poem, 728. The two are placed together as poems from the same occasion.
The second line, "nobe no komatsu o," means "the young pines of the fields." Against "the field of young pines within the palace walls" of the preceding poem, it points to the fields where young pines properly belong.
The third line, "utsushi uete," means "moving and replanting," and has six syllables, one more than the norm. By moving the young pines of the fields into the palace, it links the fields with the palace grounds of the preceding poem.
The fourth line, "toshi no o nagaku," means "long through the years." "Toshi no o," the cord of years, likens the continuance of time to a cord and is an associated word with "hiku," to pull, in the last line. 731 in this book also has "toshi no o nagaki."
In the last line, "kimi zo hikubeki," the emphatic particle "zo" is concluded by the attributive form "beki" in kakari-musubi. Overlaying the custom of pulling young pines with the sense of drawing out a long cord, the poem foretells a long reign in which the lord pulls young pines year after year.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Michitoshi
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
-
- 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.
- 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?
- My lord's reign indeed will surely long endure, as at Watarai the stream of the Isuzu River flows on and never ceases.
- On the evergreen pine where it hangs, the moss upon it— since it is such moss, of the long cord of the years a guide it is, so I think.