Sumiyoshi no arahitogami no hisashisa ni matsu mo ikutabi oikawaru ramu - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

住吉の現人神の久しさに
松もいくたび生ひかはるらむ

Roma-ji: Sumiyoshi no arahitogami no hisashisa ni matsu mo ikutabi oikawaru ramu
English Translation: Across the long ages
of Sumiyoshi's living god,
so enduring,
how many times, I wonder,
have even the pines grown anew
Meaning: Over the long ages of Sumiyoshi's living god, how many times, I wonder, have even the pines, emblems of a thousand years, died back and grown anew?
Commentary: Book Five Celebration Poems 171

Even the pine, symbol of a thousand years, must have been reborn many times over beside the enduring age of the living god of Sumiyoshi: so the poem praises the god's eternity. Praising the god's permanence becomes, in turn, a wish for the endless continuance of the reign the god protects.
Its idea of a span that surpasses even the emblem of longevity is grand in scale, a fitting close to Book Five, the celebration poems of the Shikawakashū.

First line, "Across the long ages," answers sumiyoshi no, taking up the preceding poem's final line, "the pine of Sumiyoshi," to close the book. The opening poem, 161, ends with sumamu and this last poem begins with Sumiyoshi, so the sound sumu links beginning and end: the book that opened with clear water closes with the god of Sumiyoshi.
Second line, "of Sumiyoshi's living god," means a god who appears in human form, here the deity of Sumiyoshi. It is the culmination of the poems on gods that ran through 165 and the preceding poem, 170.
Third line, "so enduring," is the noun form of hisashi, showing the long time the god has dwelt there.
Fourth line, "how many times, I wonder," corresponds to matsu mo ikutabi, where mo adds "even the thousand-year pine." The pine, sung until now as an emblem of longevity, is here deliberately treated as brief beside the god's time.
Fifth line, "have even the pines grown anew," closes with the conjectural ramu, imagining the unseen turnings of a vast span of time.
Author: Minamoto no Tsunenobu
Source: Shika Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kimi ga yo no hisashikaru beki tameshi ni ya kami mo uekemu Sumiyoshi no matsu
Next Poem: Miyako nite obotsukanasa o narawazu wa tabine o ikani omoiyaramashi