Yamashiro no kuze no sagisaka kamuyo yori haru wa haritsutsu aki wa chirikeri

山背の久世の鷺坂神代より
春は張りつつ秋は散りけり

Roma-ji: Yamashiro no kuze no sagisaka kamuyo yori haru wa haritsutsu aki wa chirikeri
English Translation: In Yamashiro
the heron slope of Kuze—
ever since the gods,
in spring the buds have swelled and swelled,
in autumn leaves have fallen.
Meaning: On the Heron Slope of Kuze in Yamashiro, ever since the age of the gods, the buds have swelled each spring and the leaves have fallen each autumn.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems 1707

Headnote: "A poem composed at Sagisaka"
On the Heron Slope of Kuze, since the age of the gods, trees have budded each spring and shed their leaves each autumn. In this unchanging cycle of nature the poet senses the vastness of time.
Poems 1687 and 1694 of this book also concern Sagisaka, so that Sagisaka poems appear three times. Among them, this one sees the slope not through a single night's lodging or a single flower, but on the long scale of time reaching back to the gods.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Jitō and Monmu. This poem is taken from the Hitomaro Collection, which is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he gathered.

The first line, "in Yamashiro," names the province, present-day southern Kyoto.
The second line, "the heron slope of Kuze," gives the slope's location.
The third line, "ever since the gods," widens the poem's measure of time.
The fourth line, "in spring the buds have swelled and swelled," uses tsutsu to express repetition.
The final line, "in autumn leaves have fallen," uses keri to express realization. Pairing spring in the fourth line with autumn in the fifth, it shows the turning of the seasons.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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