Azusayumi isobe no komatsu ta ga yo ni ka yorozuyo kanete tane o makikemu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あづさ弓磯辺の小松誰が世にか
万代かねて種をまきけむ

Roma-ji: Azusayumi isobe no komatsu ta ga yo ni ka yorozuyo kanete tane o makikemu
English Translation: Catalpa bow—
the young pines on the rocky shore:
in whose age was it
that, foreseeing ten thousand years,
someone sowed their seeds?
Meaning: The young pines on the rocky shore: in whose age, I wonder, and foreseeing ten thousand generations, did someone sow their seeds?
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 907

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Seeing young pines on the rocky shore, the speaker wonders who, and in what age, sowed their seeds with an eye to ten thousand generations to come. Praising the pine's longevity, the poem reaches back to the labors of people long ago.
The author is given as unknown, but a left note says, "Someone says this poem is by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro," attributing it to him. Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, revered as the Saint of Poetry.

First line "azusayumi" is a pillow word for isobe, leading to the sound i from iru, to shoot a bow.
Second line "isobe no komatsu" is a small pine growing by the sea. Taking up the "little pine" of the two preceding poems, the poems on pines continue.
Third line "ta ga yo ni ka": the question particle ka forms a kakari-musubi with kemu in the last line.
Fourth line "yorozuyo kanete": kanete means foreseeing, anticipating prosperity ten thousand ages ahead.
Fifth line "tane o makikemu" closes with the attributive of the past-conjecture kemu.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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