Chitose furu shimo no tsuru o ba okinagara hisashiki mono wa kimi ni zo arikeru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

千歳ふる霜の鶴をばおきながら
久しき物は君にぞありける

Roma-ji: Chitose furu shimo no tsuru o ba okinagara hisashiki mono wa kimi ni zo arikeru
English Translation: The frost-white crane
that a thousand years goes on,
leaving it aside,
the one who will last so long,
I find at last, is you.
Meaning: Setting aside the frost-white crane said to pass a thousand years, the one that truly lasts long, I find, is you.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Congratulatory Poems 1176

Headnote: "When someone held a celebration of long life"
The poet says that, setting aside even the frost-white crane said to live a thousand years, the one who lasts long is the person being celebrated. The headnote shows it was composed for someone's celebration of long life. Praising the one celebrated as more enduring even than the crane, symbol of long life, and pivoting on "furu," to pass and to fall, and "oki," to settle and to set aside, it strings its words through the associations of frost. Against the crane chick and eggs of 1166 and 1167 in this book, it sings of a white crane grown old.
The author, written as "Atsutada, Provisional Middle Counselor," is Fujiwara no Atsutada. A son of the Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Tokihira, he rose to Provisional Middle Counselor. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets and is known for his poem "aimite no" in the Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "chitose furu," is a pivot word: "furu" means to "pass" years and for frost to "fall." It means "passing a thousand years" and runs on into "shimo," frost, in the second line.
Second line, "shimo no tsuru o ba," means "the frost-white crane," a crane grown white with age.
Third line, "okinagara," is a pivot word: "oki" means frost "settling" and "setting aside." It means "leaving the crane aside" and is an associated word of "shimo."
Fourth line, "hisashiki mono wa," means "the one that lasts long."
Final line, "kimi ni zo arikeru," means "is you," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "keru," the attributive form of the past auxiliary "keri."
Author: Fujiwara no Atsutada
Source: Shui Wakashu
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