川の上のゆつ岩群に草生さず
常にもがもな常処女にて
常にもがもな常処女にて
- Roma-ji
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Kawa no e no yutsu iwamura ni kusa musazu tsune ni mo gamo na tokootome nite
- English Translation
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On the riverside
the sacred rock clusters bear
no growth of grasses;
so may you be ever thus,
a maiden forevermore.
- Meaning
- Just as no grass grows on the sacred rocks by the river, may you stay unchanged forever—always a young maiden.
- Commentary
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Book One Miscellaneous Poems 22
Headnote: "In the reign of the Sovereign who ruled from the Kiyomihara Palace of Asuka: a poem composed by Fufuki no Toji on seeing the rocks of the Hata hills when Princess Tōchi went to visit the Grand Shrine of Ise"
Accompanying Princess Tōchi on her pilgrimage to the Grand Shrine of Ise, Fufuki no Toji looked at the rocks of the Hata hills and prayed that, like rocks on which no grass grows, the princess would remain a young and lovely maiden forever. It is a poem of blessing that draws on the permanence of rock to wish for eternal youth, filled with devotion to the princess. Princess Tōchi had suffered the tragedy of seeing her father, Emperor Tenmu, and her husband, Prince Ōtomo, fight each other in the Jinshin War, and that background makes the prayer all the more poignant. The left note, citing the Nihon Shoki, records that Princess Tōchi and Princess Ahe visited the Grand Shrine of Ise in the second month of 675, the fourth year of Emperor Tenmu.
Fufuki no Toji is, as the left note says, "unknown." Toji was a respectful title for a mature woman, and she is thought to have been in the service of Princess Tōchi.
The first line means "beside the river," setting the scene on a riverbank along the road to Ise.
In the second line, yutsu means sacred and pure, and iwamura are clustered rocks. The rocks, as if dwelt in by gods, become a symbol of eternity.
The third line means "no grass grows," musu being the verb "to grow." It shows the rocks ever unchanged and pure, and the first three lines form a figure leading to the fourth.
In the fourth line, mo gamo is a particle of wish and na an exclamation: "may you be so forever." The poem breaks here, inverted with the last line.
The last line means "as a maiden forever young." Echoing tsune ("ever") of the fourth line with toko ("ever"), it stresses the longing for permanence.
- Author
- Fufuki no Toji
- Source
- Manyoshu
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