Koe takaku mikasa no yama zo yobau naru ame no shita koso tanoshikaru rashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

声高く三笠の山ぞ呼ばふなる
あめの下こそ楽しかるらし

Roma-ji: Koe takaku mikasa no yama zo yobau naru ame no shita koso tanoshikaru rashi
English Translation: Raising its voice high,
the hill of Mikasa calls,
so it seems to me;
all beneath the heavens now
must surely live in gladness.
Meaning: Mount Mikasa seems to be calling out in a loud voice; all under heaven must surely be living in joy.
Commentary: Book Five Celebration Poems 274

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "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 hears Mount Mikasa calling out in a loud voice and blesses the reign, supposing all under heaven to be living in joy. Drawing on the story that when Emperor Wu of Han climbed Mount Song, voices crying "ten thousand years" were heard from the mountain, it lets cries of long life ring from Mount Mikasa near Kōfukuji. According to the headnote, like the preceding poem it is one of the poems written on the cloth beneath the sandbar tray for Emperor Murakami's fortieth-birthday celebration.
Chūsan, written as the monk Chūsan, was a monk of Kōfukuji known as a scholar of the Hossō school.

First line, "koe takaku," means "with a loud voice."
Second line, "mikasa no yama zo," is Mount Mikasa in Yamato, which rises behind the Kasuga Shrine near Kōfukuji. "Kasa" (hat) is an associated word for "ame" (rain) in the fourth line.
Third line, "yobau naru," means "seems to be calling," with "naru" an auxiliary of inference from sound, resolving "zo" in its attributive form. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "ame no shita koso," plays on "ame no shita" as all under heaven and, through the hat of Mikasa, as beneath the rain, emphasized by the particle "koso."
Final line, "tanoshikaru rashi," means "must be joyful," with "rashi" an inference based on the mountain's voice, resolving "koso." Whereas the preceding poem prayed with pine and rock, this one blesses the peace of the reign through the voice of the mountain.
Author: Chūsan
Source: Shui Wakashu
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