Hitotsu matsu ikuyo ka henuru fuku kaze no oto no kiyoki wa toshi fukami kamo

一つ松幾代か経ぬる吹く風の
音の清きは年深みかも

Roma-ji: Hitotsu matsu ikuyo ka henuru fuku kaze no oto no kiyoki wa toshi fukami kamo
English Translation: Lone pine on the hill,
how many ages have passed?
The wind that blows through—
if its sound is pure and clear,
is it for your many years?
Meaning: This solitary pine: how many ages has it lived through? Is the sound of the wind blowing through it so pure because it has grown so deep in years?
Commentary: Book Six Miscellaneous Poems 1042

Headnote: "Two poems from a drinking party when people climbed Ikuji Hill on the eleventh day of the same month and gathered beneath a single pine"
The poem asks how many ages the lone pine has passed, and whether the pure sound of the wind in its boughs comes from its great age. According to the headnote, it is the first of two poems from a drinking party held on the eleventh day of the first month of Tenpyō 16 (744), when people climbed Ikuji Hill and gathered beneath a single pine; the left note shows it was composed by Prince Ichihara. Ikuji Hill is said to have been a hill near the Kuni capital.
The poem's device lies in linking the pure sound of the wind in the pine to the long years the tree has accumulated. Praising the age of the lone pine also carries a wish for the long life and prosperity of the people gathered beneath it.
The poet, Prince Ichihara, was a member of the imperial family, the son of Prince Aki and a great-grandson of Prince Shiki. He later served as director of the Office for the Construction of Tōdaiji, among other posts.

This poem and the next, 1043, are both from the banquet beneath the same pine: this one ponders the "ages" the pine has already passed, while the next wishes for a long life ahead with "long, I hope, it shall be." They form a pair that sings of the pine's long time from two directions, past and future.
The first line, "Lone pine on the hill," means a pine standing alone, referring to the "single pine" of the headnote. Opening with a noun, it points to the pine before the poet's eyes.
The second line, "how many ages have passed?" asks how many ages it has lived through. Answering the interrogative particle "ka," the perfective auxiliary "nu" takes its attributive form "nuru," a kakari-musubi construction. The sense breaks here, making this a poem with a pause after the second line.
The third line, "The wind that blows through," means the wind blowing through the pine, turning from the pine seen by the eye to the sound of the wind heard by the ear.
The fourth line, "if its sound is pure and clear," means "that its sound is so pure." "Pure" is a word of praise, and it carries the wish to honor the gathering.
The final line, "is it for your many years?" means "is it because it has grown deep in years?" "Toshi fukami" uses the -mi construction of "toshi fukashi" to express a reason, and "kamo" is an exclamation tinged with doubt. Taking up the "ages" of the second line, it finds its answer in the pine's great age.
Author: Prince Ichihara
Source: Manyoshu
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