Sakakiba ni yūshide kakete ta ga yo ni ka kami no mimae ni iwaisomeken - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

榊葉に木綿四手かけて誰が世にか
神の御前に斎ひそめけん

Roma-ji: Sakakiba ni yūshide kakete ta ga yo ni ka kami no mimae ni iwaisomeken
English Translation: On the sakaki leaves
hanging the white mulberry strips,
in whose reign was it
that before the gods' presence
these rites were first begun?
Meaning: Hanging strips of white mulberry cloth on sakaki leaves, in whose reign, I wonder, did people first begin to worship this way before the gods?
Commentary: Book Ten Kagura Songs 576

The poem wonders in whose reign people first began to hang strips of mulberry cloth on sakaki leaves and worship before the gods, turning its thoughts to the origin of the sacred rite. It carries a sense of awe that the kagura rite being performed before one's eyes has been handed down from the distant past.
This book is devoted to kagura songs, and from its opening poem to 586 come songs sung at the court kagura, with neither author nor headnote recorded. It is related to the songs of the torimono, the objects held by dancers at the court kagura, specifically those sung of the sakaki, and together with the next poem, 577, songs of the sakaki open the book.
Where the closing poem of the book, 620, sings of the present rite, saying that the gods too must rejoice in the dance of the shrine maidens of Kasuga, this opening poem asks about the beginning of the rites, so that the origin of worship and the present answer each other at the start and end of the book.

First line, "sakakiba ni," means "on the sakaki leaves." The sakaki is an evergreen tree offered before the gods, and the poem begins with the same word as the first line of the next poem, 577, "sakakiba no."
Second line, "yūshide kakete," means "hanging strips of mulberry cloth," speaking of the ornaments used to worship the gods.
Third line, "ta ga yo ni ka," means "in whose reign," with the binding particle "ka" resolved by "ken," the attributive form of the auxiliary of past conjecture, in the final line.
Fourth line, "kami no mimae ni," means "before the gods." It is the same line as the fourth line of 581, "kami no mimae ni."
Final line, "iwaisomeken," means "did they first begin to worship," with "iwau" meaning to purify oneself and worship the gods, and "somu" adding the sense of beginning.
Source: Shui Wakashu
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