Yamahime ni chie no nishiki o tamukete mo chiru momijiba o ikade todomen - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山姫に千重の錦を手向けても
散る紅葉葉をいかでとどめん

Roma-ji: Yamahime ni chie no nishiki o tamukete mo chiru momijiba o ikade todomen
English Translation: To the mountain goddess
though I offer up brocade
in a thousand folds,
the autumn leaves that scatter,
how could I make them stay?
Meaning: Even if I offered brocade in a thousand folds to the mountain goddess, how could I keep the autumn leaves from falling?
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 359

Headnote: "Composed as a poem on autumn leaves for a poetry contest"
Composed as a poem on autumn leaves when the poet held a poetry contest. Even if he offered layer upon layer of brocade to Yamahime, goddess guarding the mountains, he says, how could he keep the leaves from falling? On the view that the leaves are themselves a brocade, and that it is the mountain's goddess who scatters them, he laments that no means can hold back the falling leaves he so regrets.
The author, "Sakyō no Daibu Akisuke," was the son of Master of the Office of Palace Repairs Fujiwara no Akisue. He compiled the Shika Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Sutoku. He carried on the poetic tradition of the Rokujō Fujiwara house, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Ever since Sugawara no Michizane's Kokin Wakashū poem, "This time I could bring no offering; at Tamuke Mountain, take this brocade of autumn leaves, as the gods will," the conceit of offering a brocade of leaves to the gods had been sung. Just as 357 of this book sang of Tatsutahime, this poem sings of Yamahime.

First line, "Yamahime ni": Yamahime is the goddess who guards and rules the mountains, a goddess of the leaves like "Tatsutahime" in 357 of this book.
Second line, "chie no nishiki o": "chie" means a thousand layers, and "nishiki," brocade, also calls up the brocade of autumn leaves.
Third line, "tamukete mo": "tamuku" is to make an offering to the gods, and "te mo" is a concessive supposition, "even if."
Fourth line, "chiru momijiba o": naming what he would hold back.
Fifth line, "ikade todomen": "ikade" means "how," and "n" is the conjectural "mu," lamenting rhetorically, "how could I hold them? I could not."
Author: Fujiwara no Akisuke
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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