常磐なる神南備山の榊葉を
さしてぞ祈る万代のため
さしてぞ祈る万代のため
- Roma-ji
-
Tokiwa naru Kannabiyama no sakakiba o sashite zo inoru yorozuyo no tame
- English Translation
-
Of the evergreen
Mount Kannabi I set
the sakaki leaves,
and with all my heart I pray
for ten thousand ages
- Meaning
- Setting up leaves of sakaki from evergreen Mount Kannabi, I pray with all my heart for a reign of ten thousand ages.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Shinto Poems 1281
Headnote: "Composed on Mount Kannabi in the province of Tanba as a song for the sacred dances of the Suki side at the Great Thanksgiving Festival in the reign of Emperor Go-Suzaku, in the ninth year of Chōgen"
He composed this on Mount Kannabi in Tanba as a song for the sacred dances of the Suki side at the Great Thanksgiving Festival of Emperor Go-Suzaku in 1036. The Great Thanksgiving Festival is the first harvest rite an emperor performs after his accession; two provinces, Yuki and Suki, were chosen, and poems on famous places in them were presented. Setting leaves of sakaki from evergreen Mount Kannabi, I pray for ten thousand ages, he says. He entrusts the permanence of the reign to the sakaki whose green never changes, and prays for an emperor's reign of ten thousand ages.
The author, "Fujiwara no Yoshitada Ason," was a Confucian scholar of the mid-Heian period who served as professor of letters.
From here to the end of the book, poems for the Yuki and Suki sides of the Great Thanksgiving Festival are arranged in order of reign. 1286 in this book also sings of Mount Kannabi in Tanba for the Suki side, and both sing of the sakaki of that mountain.
First line, "tokiwa naru": "ever unchanging," overlaying the evergreen sakaki with the permanence of the reign.
Second line, "Kannabiyama no": Mount Kannabi in Tanba, working in a place name from the Suki province. It is the same mountain as "Kannabi no" in the third line of 1286 in this book.
Third line, "sakakiba o": the leaves of sakaki used in rites, the same phrase as "sakakiba o" in the third line of 1260 in this book.
Fourth line, "sashite zo inoru": "sasu" plays on setting up sakaki and directing oneself wholeheartedly toward something. "Zo," an emphatic binding particle, closes with the attributive "inoru." It is the same word as "sashite" in the second line of the opening poem, 1256.
Fifth line, "yorozuyo no tame": "so that the reign may last ten thousand ages," closing on a noun.
- Author
- Fujiwara no Yoshitada
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Iwashimizu kiyoki nagare no taeseneba yadoru tsuki sae kuma nakarikeri
- Next Poem
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Ugoki naku chiyo o zo inoru Iwayayama toru sakakiba no iro kaezu shite