Yamashina no yama no iwane ni matsu o uete tokiwa kakiwa ni inoritsuru kana - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山科の山の岩根に松を植ゑて
常磐堅磐に祈りつるかな

Roma-ji: Yamashina no yama no iwane ni matsu o uete tokiwa kakiwa ni inoritsuru kana
English Translation: At Yamashina
by the rocks' roots on the hill
I planted a pine,
and prayed that you would endure
firm and changeless as the rock.
Meaning: Planting a pine by the roots of the rocks on the hill of Yamashina, I prayed that you might endure, firm and unchanging as the rock itself.
Commentary: Book Five Celebration Poems 273

Headnote: "When the Tenryaku Emperor reached forty, sutras of long life were copied in gold in forty scrolls and dedicated at Yamashina Temple; the record of the readings was placed in the beak of a crane and set on a decorative sandbar tray, and among the many poems written in reed script on the cloth spread beneath it"
The poet says he planted a pine by the roots of the rocks on the hill of Yamashina and prayed that the emperor might endure as changeless as rock. Overlaying the immovable rock and the evergreen pine, two emblems of long life, the poem conveys the blessing of the fortieth-birthday celebration. According to the headnote, when Emperor Murakami reached forty, forty scrolls of a sutra of long life were copied in gold and dedicated at Yamashina Temple; the record of the readings was placed in the beak of a crane figure set on a decorative sandbar tray, and this is one of the many poems written in reed script on the cloth beneath it. Yamashina Temple is an old name for Kōfukuji.
The author, written as Kanemori, is Taira no Kanemori. Of a Taira line descended from Emperor Kōkō, he was a poet of the mid-Heian period. He is known for his performance at the palace poetry contest of the fourth year of Tentoku and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "yamashina no," means "of Yamashina" in Yamashiro, recalling that Kōfukuji was called Yamashina Temple because its predecessor stood at Yamashina.
Second line, "yama no iwane ni," means "by the roots of the rocks on the hill."
Third line, "matsu o uete," means "planting a pine," and has six syllables, one more than the norm. It joins the series of pine poems running from 264 in this book.
Fourth line, "tokiwa kakiwa ni," means "changeless and firm as rock forever," doubling "tokiwa" and "kakiwa" for emphasis. It takes up "iwane" (the rocks' roots) in the second line.
Final line, "inoritsuru kana," means "how I prayed," with "tsuru" the attributive form of the perfective "tsu" and "kana" exclamatory. The next poem, 274, belongs to the same occasion.
Author: Taira no Kanemori
Source: Shui Wakashu
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