Fuku kaze mo kigi no eda o ba narasanedo yama wa yachiyo no koe zo kikoyuru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

吹く風も木々の枝をば鳴らさねど
山は八千代の声ぞ聞こゆる

Roma-ji: Fuku kaze mo kigi no eda o ba narasanedo yama wa yachiyo no koe zo kikoyuru
English Translation: Though the blowing wind
does not set the branches of
the trees to rustling,
from the mountain there resounds
a voice that hails eight thousand ages
Meaning: Though even the blowing wind does not rustle the branches of the trees, so peaceful is the realm, from the mountain a voice is heard hailing eight thousand ages.
Commentary: Book Ten Poems of Celebration 622

Headnote: "Composed on the theme of celebration when he called for hundred-poem sequences"
Composed on the theme of celebration when he called for hundred-poem sequences. Though the blowing wind does not rustle the branches of the trees, he says, from the mountain a voice is heard hailing eight thousand ages. That the wind does not rustle the branches draws on the Chinese saying "the wind does not sound the boughs," a figure for an age of great peace, and means that the realm is well governed and calm. Drawing also on the story that when Emperor Wu of Han climbed Mount Song a voice crying "ten thousand years" was heard in the mountain, the poem celebrates the age of peace and the endurance of the reign. The sequences are the Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequences.
The author, "Retired Emperor Sutoku," was the first son of Emperor Toba and the seventy-fifth emperor. His mother was Taikenmon'in Shōshi. He loved poetry, called for the Kyūan Hundred-Poem Sequences and commanded the compilation of the Shika Wakashū. Defeated in the Hōgen Disturbance, he was exiled to Sanuki and died there. He has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 630 of this book, which says it seemed as though the mountain answered the flute playing "Manzairaku," draws on the same story of the mountain crying "ten thousand years."

First line, "fuku kaze mo": "even the blowing wind."
Second line, "kigi no eda o ba": "o ba" is the case particle "o" with the binding particle "wa," voiced, strengthening the object.
Third line, "narasanedo": "ne" is the perfective of the negative "zu," and with "do" it becomes adversative. That the wind does not sound the branches is a sign that the realm is well governed.
Fourth line, "yama wa yachiyo no": "yachiyo" means an endless span of years. It draws on the story of the voice crying "ten thousand years" on Mount Song in the time of Emperor Wu of Han, and shares its idea with "yama mo kotauru" in the fourth line of 630.
Fifth line, "koe zo kikoyuru": the emphatic "zo" closes with the attributive "kikoyuru." The contrast stands out between the stillness without even the sound of wind and the voice of the mountain that is heard.
Author: Retired Emperor Sutoku
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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