Tokiwa naru Matsui no mizu o musubu te no shizuku goto ni zo chiyo wa miekeru

English Translation

Ever green and firm,
the water of Matsui's spring
scooped up in my hands—
in every drop that falls from them
a thousand ages appear.

Meaning

As I scoop up the water of Matsui, evergreen and unchanging, in my cupped hands, a thousand ages appear in every drop that falls.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitation Poems 756

Headnote: "Matsui in the Sixth Month, for a Suki screen at the same Great Thanksgiving Festival."
This is the tenth poem of the sequence of Great Thanksgiving Festival poems and the closing poem of Felicitation Poems. In every drop falling from hands that scoop the water of evergreen Matsui, a thousand ages appear. According to the headnote, it was composed on Matsui in the Sixth Month, painted on a screen of the Suki province for the same Great Thanksgiving Festival of Kenkyū 9 as the preceding poem.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Kanemitsu and rose to Provisional Middle Counselor.
The scene is summer in the Sixth Month, and the place is Matsui in the Suki province, painted on the screen.
The direct occasion is the composition of a screen poem for the Suki province at the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Emperor Tsuchimikado in Kenkyū 9 (1198).

The first line, "tokiwa naru," means "evergreen and unchanging." It is the same first line as 731 and 747 in this book.
The second line, "Matsui no mizu o," means "the water of Matsui," a place name of the Suki province. The "matsu," pine, in the place name ties it to "tokiwa" in the first line.
The third line, "musubu te no," means "of the hands cupped to scoop water." It conveys the coolness of scooping clear water in the heat of the Sixth Month and answers the cool evening wind of the preceding poem, 755.
The fourth line, "shizuku goto ni zo," means "in each and every drop," with "zo" as an emphatic particle. Like "in each of its boughs" in 725 in this book, it sees the count of a thousand ages in each single thing.
The last line, "chiyo wa miekeru," means "a thousand ages appear," closing the kakari-musubi with the attributive form "keru." Seeing a thousand ages in something as fleeting as drops falling from the hands, it closes the book of felicitations. Whereas the opening poem, 707 in this book, saw the prosperity of the reign in smoke from the people's hearths, the closing poem sees the permanence of the reign in the clear water of a festival province, so that the book celebrating the lord's reign is rounded from beginning to end.

Author

Fujiwara no Sukezane

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other