Hiku hito mo nakute yaminuru Miyoshino no matsu wa ne no hi o yoso ni koso kike - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

引く人もなくてやみぬるみ吉野の
松は子の日をよそにこそ聞け

Roma-ji: Hiku hito mo nakute yaminuru Miyoshino no matsu wa ne no hi o yoso ni koso kike
English Translation: With no one to pull it,
left to end its days alone,
the pine of Yoshino
hears of the Day of the Rat
only as of distant things.
Meaning: The pine deep in Yoshino, left with no one to pull it up, only hears of the Day of the Rat as something far removed from itself.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Spring Poems 1028

Headnote: "When the Day of the Rat fell at the time of the appointments to office, and food was sent out from the chamber of the Azechi Concubine with pine twigs for chopsticks"
The poet laments that the pine deep in Yoshino, which no one pulls, only hears of the Day of the Rat as something that has nothing to do with it. The headnote shows that the Day of the Rat fell at the time of the appointments to office, and food was sent out from the chamber of the Azechi Concubine with chopsticks of pine. Laying his own failure to gain an appointment over a pine deep in the mountains that no one pulls, he laments that even the Day of the Rat celebrations have nothing to do with him. Like the preceding poem, 1027, it laments a lack of advancement through the pine of the Day of the Rat.
The author, written as "Motosuke," is Kiyohara no Motosuke. A grandson of Kiyohara no Fukayabu and the father of Sei Shōnagon, he took part in compiling the Gosenshū as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "hiku hito mo," means "with no one to pull it," taking up the second line of the preceding poem, 1027, "hiku hito kyō wa," and sharing the same line with the first line of the next poem, 1029, "hiku hito mo."
Second line, "nakute yaminuru," means "ending with no one," with "nuru" the attributive form of the perfective auxiliary "nu."
Third line, "Miyoshino no," means "of Yoshino," with "mi" an honorific prefix, speaking of the remote mountains.
Fourth line, "matsu wa ne no hi o," means "the pine, of the Day of the Rat."
Final line, "yoso ni koso kike," means "hears it only as something apart," with the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective form "kike."
Author: Kiyohara no Motosuke
Source: Shui Wakashu
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