Nurete hosu tamagushi no ha no tsuyushimo ni amateru hikari ikuyo henuran

English Translation

Wet and dried again,
on the leaves of sacred sprigs
with dew and with frost,
the light that shines in heaven—
how many ages has it passed?

Meaning

On the leaves of the sacred sprigs, wet and dried again by dew and frost, how many ages has the light shining in heaven passed?

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitation Poems 737

Headnote: "At the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds."
This is the second poem of the sequence celebrating the reign through the age of the gods and the heavens. On the leaves of sacred sprigs, wet and dried again by dew and frost, the speaker wonders how many ages the light shining in heaven has passed. According to the headnote, it was composed for the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds.
No author's name is given; the poem follows the preceding one as a poem by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune.
The scene is the season when dew and frost settle, and the place is before a deity where sacred sprigs are offered.
The direct occasion is a contribution to the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds held by Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
The Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds was a contest arranged around Kennin 1 (1201), in which Retired Emperor Go-Toba had thirty poets each compose a hundred poems and then paired them. Tamagushi are sprigs of sakaki with mulberry-fiber streamers attached, offered to the gods.

The first line, "nurete hosu," means "wet and then dried." It is the same first line as the poem by the monk Sosei in the Kokin wakashū, "Nurete hosu yamaji no kiku no tsuyu no ma ni," whose conceit 719 in this book shared.
The second line, "tamagushi no ha no," means "on the leaves of the sacred sprigs offered to the gods." The setting of a Shinto rite is presented.
The third line, "tsuyushimo ni," means "with dew and frost." The repetition of wetting and drying expresses the accumulation of long years.
The fourth line, "amateru hikari," is the light of the sun shining in heaven. The phrase recalls Amaterasu, and the divine light falls upon the leaves of the sacred sprigs.
The last line, "ikuyo henuran," means "how many ages has it passed?" joining the perfective "nu" and the conjectural "ran." Each round of wetting and drying is widened into ages of years, and the long duration of the divine light is laid over the length of the reign. Taking up "from the age of the gods" in the preceding poem, it sings of time continuing from the age of the gods.

Author

Fujiwara no Yoshitsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other