Maki no ita mo koke musu bakari narinikeri ikuyo henuran seta no nagahashi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

真木の板も苔むすばかりなりにけり
幾世経ぬらん瀬田の長橋

Roma-ji: Maki no ita mo koke musu bakari narinikeri ikuyo henuran seta no nagahashi
English Translation: Even the fine boards
have come now to be so old
that moss grows on them—
through how many reigns have passed,
the long bridge of Seta?
Meaning: Even its boards of fine timber have grown so old that moss grows on them—through how many reigns has it lasted, the long bridge of Seta?
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1656

Headnote: "When I presented a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa."
This is a single poem on the long bridge of Seta. Even its boards of fine timber have grown moss, and the poet imagines the long years the bridge has passed through. According to the headnote, it was composed when he presented a hundred-poem sequence in the reign of Emperor Horikawa.
The author, "Saki no Chūnagon Masafusa," was a son of Ōe no Narihira, known as a scholar, and rose to Provisional Middle Counselor.
The hundred-poem sequences of Emperor Horikawa's reign, called the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences, were composed and presented on assigned topics by Minamoto no Toshiyori, Ōe no Masafusa, and others in that reign.
The long bridge of Seta spans the Seta River in Ōmi Province, in present-day Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture. It was a key point on the road from the capital to the eastern provinces.

The first line, "maki no ita mo," means "even the boards of fine timber." It is hypermetric, with six syllables.
The second line, "koke musu bakari," means "so much that moss grows."
The third line, "narinikeri," means "it has come to be." "Keri" expresses exclamation at a realization, and the poem breaks here after the third line.
The fourth line, "ikuyo henuran," means "through how many reigns has it passed?" Like "toshi no henuran," the last line of 1588 in this book, "henuran" gauges the long flow of time.
The last line, "seta no nagahashi," ends in a noun, placing at the close, through inversion, what has grown old. In singing of an aging bridge, it echoes the Nagara Bridge sequence beginning at 1594 in this book.
Author: Oe no Masafusa
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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