Kyō matsuru kami no kokoro ya nabikuran shide ni nami tatsu Saho no kawakaze - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今日祭る神の心やなびくらん
四手に波立つ佐保の川風

Roma-ji: Kyō matsuru kami no kokoro ya nabikuran shide ni nami tatsu Saho no kawakaze
English Translation: The god we worship
today—is the god's heart swayed,
bending to our rites?
On the streamers it raises waves,
the wind off the Saho River.
Meaning: Is the heart of the god we worship today bending toward us? The wind off the Saho River raises waves in the paper streamers.
Commentary: Book Nineteen Poems on the Gods 1896

Headnote: "On the Kasuga Festival, for a screen for the entry of an imperial consort into the palace in Bunji 6."
This is the second poem in the sequence on the Kasuga Shrine. In the wind off the Saho River that ripples the paper streamers, the poet wonders whether the heart of the god worshipped today is bending toward the rites. According to the headnote, it was composed on the Kasuga Festival scene painted on a screen for the entry of an imperial consort into the palace in Bunji 6 (1190). In the streamers swaying in the wind, he sees the heart of the god accepting the festival.
The author, "Nyūdō Saki no Kanpaku Daijō Daijin," the lay-priest former Chancellor and Regent, is Kujō Kanezane. A son of Fujiwara no Tadamichi, he served as Regent, Chancellor, and Grand Minister and later took holy orders. He left the diary Gyokuyō.
The entry of a consort in Bunji 6 refers to Ninshi, the author Kanezane's own daughter, entering the palace of Emperor Go-Toba.
The Saho River flows at the foot of Mount Kasuga in Nara.

The first line, "kyō matsuru," means "whom we worship today" at the Kasuga Festival.
The second line, "kami no kokoro ya," means "the god's heart," with the particle "ya" taken up in the third line.
The third line, "nabikuran," means "is it swaying?" The "ya" is closed by the attributive of the conjectural "ran," and the poem breaks here. The god's gladly accepting the festival is expressed as "nabiku," "to bend and sway."
The fourth line, "shide ni nami tatsu," means "stirring the streamers like waves," likening the streamers tossing in the wind to waves.
The last line, "Saho no kawakaze," is the wind blowing over the Saho River, ending on a noun, linked to "nami tatsu," "raising waves," through its association with the river. Poem 1889 of this book also tells of a festival from the same screen, the Special Festival, so poems on festivals from the same consort's screen are placed separately under Kamo and Kasuga.
Author: Kujō Kanezane
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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