君がため今日切る竹の杖なれば
またも尽きせぬよよぞこもれる
またも尽きせぬよよぞこもれる
- Roma-ji
-
Kimi ga tame kyō kiru take no tsue nareba mata mo tsukisenu yoyo zo komoreru
- English Translation
-
For your sake today
this bamboo is cut and made
into a staff, and so
within its joints there are sealed
ages that will never end.
- Meaning
- Since this is a staff of bamboo cut today for your sake, within its joints are sealed age upon age that will never run out.
- Commentary
-
Book Five Celebration Poems 280
Headnote: "When the same person's seventieth birthday was celebrated, a bamboo staff was made"
The poet says that in the bamboo staff cut today for the seventieth-birthday celebration, age upon age that will never run out is sealed in each joint. Playing on the joints of bamboo and the ages of life, he celebrates still longer life. According to the headnote, it was composed when a bamboo staff was made as a gift for the seventieth-birthday celebration of the same person, that is, Fujiwara no Saneyori.
The author, written as Yoshinobu, is Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu. From the Ōnakatomi family, who served as chief priests of the Ise Shrine, he took part in compiling the Gosenshū and in reading the Man'yōshū as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
First line, "kimi ga tame," means "for your sake."
Second line, "kyō kiru take no," means "of the bamboo cut today."
Third line, "tsue nareba," means "since it is a staff." It is the same as the third line of 276 in this book, sharing the conceit of sealing years in a bamboo staff.
Fourth line, "mata mo tsukisenu," means "that will never again run out." It echoes "tsukiji" in 276.
Final line, "yoyo zo komoreru," plays on "yoyo" as age upon age and as the spaces between bamboo joints, with "zo" resolved by the attributive "ru."
- Author
- Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
- Source
- Shui Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Waga yado ni sakeru sakura no hanazakari chitose miru tomo akaji to zo omou
- Next Poem
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Kuraiyama mine made tsukeru tsue naredo ima yorozuyo no saka no tame nari