Asahi sasu mine no tsuzuki wa megumedomo mada shimo fukashi tani no kagegusa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

朝日さす峰のつづきはめぐめども
まだ霜深し谷の陰草

Roma-ji: Asahi sasu mine no tsuzuki wa megumedomo mada shimo fukashi tani no kagegusa
English Translation: Where the morning sun
strikes the long chain of the peaks,
all is budding forth,
yet the frost still lies deep upon
the grasses in the valley's shade.
Meaning: Along the peaks lit by the morning sun, all is budding, yet frost still lies deep on the grasses in the valley's shade.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1946

Headnote: "First it lights the high mountains."
This is the second poem in the sequence of poems by various poets on phrases from the scriptures. While the ridges touched by morning sun are budding, the grasses in the shadow of the valley still lie under deep frost. According to the headnote, it was composed on the meaning of the scriptural phrase "First it lights the high mountains."
The order in which the Buddha's teaching reaches people—first lighting the high peaks like sunlight, slow to reach the valley floor—is carried into a mountain scene in early spring. One can also read the poet's heart likening himself, not yet reached by the Buddha's grace, to the grass in the valley's shade.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Retired Emperor Sutoku, the seventy-fifth emperor, first son of Emperor Toba. Defeated in the Hōgen Disturbance, he was exiled to Sanuki and died there. He ordered the compilation of the Shika Wakashū.
"First it lights the high mountains" is a simile: as the rising sun first lights the high mountains and then the valleys and plains, the Buddha first preaches for bodhisattvas of superior capacity and gradually extends the teaching to others. It is based on the Flower Garland Sutra.

The first line, "asahi sasu," is the light of the newly risen sun, a figure for the Buddha's teaching.
The second line, "mine no tsuzuki wa," is the high chain of peaks, gently transposing the scripture's "high mountains" and marking those who first receive the teaching.
In the third line, "megumedomo," "megumu" is a pivot word joining plants "budding" and the Buddha's light "bestowing grace." The adversative "domo" turns to the valley scene of the lower half.
The fourth line, "mada shimo fukashi," shows the valley still unreached by light and deep in frost, and the poem breaks after it.
The last line, "tani no kagegusa," is grass growing in the shadow of the valley, and ends on a noun. The contrast of peak and valley, light and frost, above and below, shows the order in which the teaching spreads.
Author: Retired Emperor Sutoku
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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