Toshi furedo kawaranu matsu o tanomite ya kakarisomeken ike no fujinami - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

年経れど変はらぬ松を頼みてや
かかりそめけん池の藤波

Roma-ji: Toshi furedo kawaranu matsu o tanomite ya kakarisomeken ike no fujinami
English Translation: Trusting in the pine
that does not change through the years,
did they begin
to twine and hang upon it,
the wisteria waves of the pond?
Meaning: Did the wisteria by the pond begin to twine about the pine because they trusted in a tree that does not change however many years go by?
Commentary: Book Two Spring Poems II 120

Headnote: "Composed when presenting a hundred-poem sequence"
Composed for a hundred-poem sequence presented to Retired Emperor Sutoku. The poet wonders whether the wisteria by the pond, hanging from a pine, began to twine about it because it trusted in a tree whose color never changes through the years. The scene of wisteria entwined with an evergreen pine, joining the pine's permanence with the wisteria's flourishing, was favored as an auspicious pairing. The wisteria sequence ends here.
The author, "Ōimikado Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Kinyoshi, son of Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Saneyoshi, who rose to Minister of the Right. He was called by this name from his residence at Ōimikado, and was one of the poets of Retired Emperor Sutoku's Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequence.

First line, "toshi furedo": "do" is concessive: "though the years pass."
Second line, "kawaranu matsu o": "the pine that does not change," the evergreen regarded as a sign of eternity.
Third line, "tanomite ya": the interrogative "ya" links with "ken" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "kakarisomeken": "some" means to begin and "ken" is the attributive of past conjecture "kemu," closing with "ya": "did they begin to hang there?" The poem pauses here.
Fifth line, "ike no fujinami": ends on a noun; "fujinami," wisteria waves, likens the clusters swaying in the wind to waves, and "pond" and "waves" are associated words. Where 118 likened the wisteria to a riverbank and 119 to clouds, this poem likens it to the waves of a pond, closing the wisteria sequence.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinyoshi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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