Shirurame ya kyō no ne no hi no himekomatsu oin sue made sakayubeshi to wa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

知るらめや今日の子の日の姫小松
生ひん末まで栄ゆべしとは

Roma-ji: Shirurame ya kyō no ne no hi no himekomatsu oin sue made sakayubeshi to wa
English Translation: Do you know it, then,
little pine of the Day of the Rat,
drawn up today—
that you will flourish on
to the far end of your growing?
Meaning: Do you know, little pine drawn up on this Day of the Rat, that you are bound to flourish until the distant end of your growing?
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1852

Headnote: "It is said this poem appeared in someone's dream on the night the priest of the Hiyoshi Shrine went up the hill behind the shrine to celebrate the Day of the Rat."
This is the first poem in the sequence of poems composed by the gods, and the opening poem of Book Nineteen. Addressing a little pine drawn up on the Day of the Rat, it declares that the pine is bound to flourish far into the future. According to the left note, it appeared in someone's dream on the night the Hiyoshi Shrine priest held the Day of the Rat outing on the hill behind the shrine. In blessing the pine's future, the god promises prosperity to the priest and his house.
The poem has no headnote; a left note follows it instead. In this text the left note is placed under the number of the next poem, but its content shows that it belongs to this poem, so it is cited here as the headnote.
No author is named in the original. According to the left note, the poem is regarded as the utterance of the deity of the Hiyoshi Shrine. The shrine stands at Sakamoto in Ōmi Province (present-day Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture) and was revered as the guardian of Enryakuji on Mount Hiei.
The Day of the Rat was a New Year observance held on the first Day of the Rat of the first month, when people went out into the fields, drew up young pines, and gathered young greens to pray for long life.

The first line, "shirurame ya," means "do you know?" The auxiliary "rame," the perfective form of "ramu," joined with the particle "ya," frames a question. The poem breaks after the first line, and the god speaks directly to the little pine.
The second line, "kyō no ne no hi no," refers to the observance of the first Day of the Rat in the New Year. The book of poems on the gods thus opens with a scene of spring celebration.
The third line, "himekomatsu," is a small young pine, fondly called "hime," "little princess." Within the sequence of divine poems it answers "the pine of Suminoe" in poem 1856 of this book.
The fourth line, "oin sue made," means "to the far future of your growing"; "n" is the conjectural auxiliary "mu." It corresponds to "oikawarinuru" in poem 1856, both poems speaking of a pine's growth.
The last line, "sakayubeshi to wa," means "that you are bound to flourish." Through "to wa" it turns back to "shirurame ya" in the first line, an inverted construction. It shares the verb "sakayu" with "ima zo sakaen" in poem 1854 of this book; in both, a god foretells prosperity.
Author: Hiyoshi Deity (per the left note)
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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