Shiranami no hamamatsu ga e no tamukegusa ikuyo made ni ka toshi no henu ramu

白波の浜松が枝の手向け草
幾代までにか年の経ぬらむ

Roma-ji: Shiranami no hamamatsu ga e no tamukegusa ikuyo made ni ka toshi no henu ramu
English Translation: The offerings tied
to the boughs of shoreline pines
where the white waves break—
through how many ages now
have the years passed over them?
Meaning: The offerings tied to the branches of the pines along this shore of white-breaking waves—how many ages of years must have passed over them?
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 34

Headnote: "A poem composed by Prince Kawashima when the Emperor journeyed to Kii Province (some say it was composed by Yamanoue no Omi Okura)"
Attending a royal journey to Kii, the poet sees offerings tied to the branches of a shoreline pine and wonders how many years they have weathered. The shore is thought to lie near Iwashiro, where Prince Arima tied pine branches to pray for his safety, and the prevailing view is that the poem carries remembrance of that prince who met an unjust death. The text notes a variant last line, "the years must have passed," and the headnote records another tradition attributing the poem to Yamanoue no Okura. The left note, citing the Nihon Shoki, records a royal journey to Kii in the ninth month of the fourth year of Shuchō (690).
Prince Kawashima was a son of Emperor Tenji. In the reign of Emperor Tenmu he joined the Yoshino Pact and took part in compiling the imperial chronicles. He also left Chinese poems in the Kaifūsō.

The first line, "of the white waves," opens the scene of a shore where white waves break.
The second line means "the branches of the shoreline pines." The evergreen pine symbolized long life and was a fitting tree on which to tie offerings.
The third line, tamukegusa, refers to offerings such as cloth or paper tied to branches to pray to the gods for a safe journey. The first three lines paint the scene concretely, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "through how many ages," contains the questioning particle ka, which forms a kakari-musubi with the ramu of the last line.
In the last line, nu is perfective and ramu the attributive of the auxiliary of present conjecture: "how many years must have passed." Answering the ka of the fourth line with an attributive ending, it closes in wonder at the long flow of time. In the variant "the years must have passed," the conjecture turns to the past.
Author: Prince Kawashima
Source: Manyoshu
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