万代のためしに君がひかるれば
子の日の松もうらやみやせむ
子の日の松もうらやみやせむ
- Roma-ji
-
Yorozuyo no tameshi ni kimi ga hikarureba nenohi no matsu mo urayami ya semu
- English Translation
-
For ten thousand ages
as the very pattern, you
are cited, drawn forth;
will the pine of the Rat Day
not look on you with envy?
- Meaning
- Since you are drawn forth as the very model of ten thousand years, surely even the pine pulled up on the Day of the Rat must envy you.
- Commentary
-
Book One Spring Poems 7
Drawing on the New Year custom of pulling up young pines on the Day of the Rat to pray for long life, the poem congratulates someone held up as the model of longevity, saying that even the pine that is pulled must envy them.
A strongly celebratory poem that exploits the double sense of "drawing," it stands with the next poem as a pair of Rat Day poems.
The first line, "for ten thousand ages," means endless years, a phrase of congratulation on long life.
In the second line, "tameshi" means a precedent or model; the person honored is made the example of longevity.
The third line, "hikarureba," is a pivot word meaning both being cited as an example and being pulled up like the young pines of the Rat Day. "Rure" is the realis of the passive "ru," and "ba" gives a definite condition.
The fourth line, "the pine of the Rat Day," is the young pine pulled up in the fields on the first Rat Day of the New Year; with the next poem's first line, Rat Day poems continue.
The last line, "will it not look on you with envy," closes a kakari-musubi with "ya" and the attributive of the conjectural "mu." The witty reversal lies in the pine, itself the emblem of long life, envying a human.
- Author
- Akazome Emon
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
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Kasugano ni asa naku kiji no haneoto wa yuki no kiema ni wakana tsume to ya
- Next Poem
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Nenohi su to haru no nogoto ni tazunureba matsu ni hikaruru kokochi koso sure