Sugi ga e o kasumi komuredo Miwa no yama kami no shirushi wa kakurezarikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

杉が枝を霞籠むれど三輪の山
神のしるしは隠れざりけり

Roma-ji: Sugi ga e o kasumi komuredo Miwa no yama kami no shirushi wa kakurezarikeri
English Translation: Though the haze of spring
wraps the boughs of cedar round
on Mount Miwa,
the token of the god
has not been hidden away
Meaning: Though the spring haze wraps the cedar boughs, on Mount Miwa the token of the god has not been hidden.
Commentary: Book Twenty Shinto Poems 1269

Headnote: "Composed on haze at the Miwa Shrine"
He composed this on the theme of haze at the Miwa Shrine. Though haze wraps the cedar boughs, the token of the god of Mount Miwa is not hidden, he says. The cedars of Mount Miwa were held to be the god's token, and ever since the Kokin Wakashū poem "My hut lies at the foot of Mount Miwa; if you long for me, come visit, at the gate where the cedar stands," Miwa and the cedar have been sung of together. Though spring haze veils the cedar, the god's token is not hidden, he says, overlaying the cedar that marks the place with the god's wondrous power and praising its certainty.
The author, "Bishop Hangen," was a monk of Kōfukuji at the end of the Heian period who held the rank of sōzu.
1267 in this book also sings of the god of Miwa, and its "shirushi" answers this poem's "kami no shirushi."

First line, "sugi ga e o": "the boughs of cedar," the god's cedars on Mount Miwa.
Second line, "kasumi komuredo": "komu" means haze wrapping something round, and "do" is an adversative conjunctive particle.
Third line, "Miwa no yama": Mount Miwa in Yamato, where the mountain itself is worshipped as the body of the god at the Ōmiwa Shrine.
Fourth line, "kami no shirushi wa": "shirushi" plays on the cedar as the god's marker and on the god's wondrous power. It is the same word as in "shirushi Arima no" in the fourth line of 1267 in this book.
Fifth line, "kakurezarikeri": "zari" is the continuative of the negative "zu" and "keri" an exclamatory auxiliary of realization.
Author: Hangen
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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