Furinikeru matsu mono iwaba toite mashi mukashi mo kaku ya Suminoe no tsuki - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

古りにける松もの言はば問ひてまし
昔もかくや住の江の月

Roma-ji: Furinikeru matsu mono iwaba toite mashi mukashi mo kaku ya Suminoe no tsuki
English Translation: If the aged pine
could only speak, I would ask it:
was it like this,
in the days of long ago,
the moon of Suminoe?
Meaning: If the aged pine could speak, I would ask it: was the moon over Suminoe like this long ago as well?
Commentary: Book Twenty Shinto Poems 1264

Headnote: "Composed on the theme of the moon at the shrine for the same poetry contest"
He composed this on the theme of the moon at the shrine for the same Sumiyoshi contest. If the aged pine could speak I would ask it: was the moon of Suminoe like this long ago? he says. Moved by the beauty of the moon over the Sumiyoshi shrine grounds, he would question the pine that has watched the long years about the moon of old, singing of the clear moon over the sacred precinct and the endless flow of time.
The author, "Minister of the Right," is Fujiwara no Sanesada, who held that post when this anthology was compiled. A son of the Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kin'yoshi, he later rose to minister of the left and was called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left. He was a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei.
Its first line, "furinikeru," takes up "furinuru" of the preceding poem, 1263. The next poem, 1265, is a poem on the moon at the shrine from the same contest, and both sing of the pines and the moon of Sumiyoshi. 1280 in this book also takes the moon at the shrine as its theme and sings of the moon at Iwashimizu.

First line, "furinikeru": "ni" is perfective and "keru" the attributive of the past "keri," "grown old with the years." It answers "furinuru mi o mo" in the second line of the preceding poem, 1263.
Second line, "matsu mono iwaba": "if the pine could speak," treating the pine as a person.
Third line, "toite mashi": "mashi" is the counterfactual auxiliary, "I would like to ask." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "mukashi mo kaku ya": "kaku" means like this and "ya" is an interrogative binding particle, "was it like this long ago?" The closing of the binding is left unstated.
Fifth line, "Suminoe no tsuki": the moon over the shore of Sumiyoshi, closing on a noun. It shares the moon with "tsuki saenureba" in the fourth line of the next poem, 1265.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanesada
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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