Kamiyo yori hisashikare to ya ugokinaki iwane ni matsu no tane o makiken - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

神代より久しかれとや動きなき
岩根に松の種を蒔きけん

Roma-ji: Kamiyo yori hisashikare to ya ugokinaki iwane ni matsu no tane o makiken
English Translation: Was it so that they
might last on from the gods' age
that someone once sowed
the seeds of these pines upon
the immovable bedrock?
Meaning: Was it in the wish that they should endure forever that, from the age of the gods, the seeds of pine were sown upon this unshakable bedrock?
Commentary: Book Ten Poems of Celebration 614

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Pines Pledge Distant Years' when Retired Emperor Shirakawa was at the Toba Palace"
Composed on the topic "Pines pledge distant years" when Retired Emperor Shirakawa was at the Toba Palace. Was it so that they might endure, he asks, that the seeds of pine were sown on the unshakable bedrock from the age of the gods? Imagining that the pines growing on rock were sown in the age of the gods in the hope of permanence, the poem celebrates the retired emperor's long life through the firmness of the rock and the evergreen pine.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A central figure in the poetry circle of Emperor Horikawa, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa. His personal collection is the Sanboku Kika Shū, and he has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 625 of this book also opens with "ugokinaku," "unshakable," and puts its trust in the eternity of the pine.

First line, "kamiyo yori": "from the age of the gods."
Second line, "hisashikare to ya": "hisashikare" is the imperative of "hisashi," "may it last long." The interrogative binding particle "ya" closes with the attributive "ken" in the last line.
Third line, "ugokinaki": "unshakable," modifying "iwane" in the fourth line. It shares its wording with "ugokinaku" in the first line of 625.
Fourth line, "iwane ni matsu no": "iwane" is a great rock seemingly rooted in the earth. It takes up the "pine" of the topic.
Fifth line, "tane o makiken": "ken," the attributive of the past conjectural "kemu," closes the "ya" of the second line, "did someone sow the seeds?"
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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