Sakaki toru natsu no yamaji ya tōkaramu yū kakete nomi matsuru kami kana - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

榊とる夏の山路や遠からむ
ゆふかけてのみ祭る神かな

Roma-ji: Sakaki toru natsu no yamaji ya tōkaramu yū kakete nomi matsuru kami kana
English Translation: Is it far away,
that mountain path in summer
where they cut sakaki?
Only as the evening falls,
hung with yū, the god is served.
Meaning: Is the summer mountain path where they gather sacred sakaki so long? For it is only toward evening, with yū cloth hung upon the branches, that this god is worshipped.
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 54

This poem describes a divine festival in the Fourth Month. The poet playfully speculates on why the rite is held in the evening: perhaps the mountain path to gather sakaki is so long that it is already dusk by the time they return.
The central technique is the pun on yū, meaning both "evening" and the mulberry-fiber cloth hung on sacred branches. Following the festival hollyhock of poem 53, poems on Shinto rites are set together.

First line, "where they cut sakaki," refers to gathering the evergreen offered before the gods.
Second line uses the particle ya to raise a question that is answered by ramu in the third line.
Third line, "is it far away," conjectures the reason for the evening rite. The poem pauses here.
Fourth line plays on yū, meaning both "evening" and "mulberry-fiber cloth," so it reads both "toward evening" and "hanging the cloth." Sakaki and yū are associated words.
Fifth line closes with the exclamatory particle kana.
Author: Minamoto no Kanemasa
Source: Shika Wakashu
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