Kimi ga yo wa kumori mo araji Mikasayama mine ni asahi no sasamu kagiri wa - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君が代は曇りもあらじ三笠山
峰に朝日のささむ限りは

Roma-ji: Kimi ga yo wa kumori mo araji Mikasayama mine ni asahi no sasamu kagiri wa
English Translation: Your reign, my sovereign,
shall never know a cloud —
on Mount Mikasa,
so long as on its summit
the morning sun shall shine
Meaning: Your reign, my lord, shall never be clouded, so long as the morning sun shines on the summit of Mount Mikasa.
Commentary: Book Eleven Poems from Variant Manuscripts 416

So long as the morning sun keeps shining on the summit of Mount Mikasa, the poet says, his lord's reign will know not the slightest cloud; the poem celebrates the eternity and prosperity of the reign. The cloudless light of the morning sun is overlaid with a bright, well-governed reign.
This book gathers poems transmitted only in variant manuscripts. The source text gives a number from variant materials, which suggests that in variant manuscripts this poem stood in Book Five, Poems of Celebration, near poem 163 of this anthology. Opening with "kimi ga yo wa" and continuing with "araji" follows the same form as a song of the Bureau of Court Music in the Kokin Wakashu, "kimi ga yo wa kagiri mo araji Nagahama no."
This poem opens the book. The next poem, 417, also celebrates "kimi ga miyo," and 418 sings of the same Mount Mikasa. Poem 419 sings of Mount Asahi with mist filling its foot, so that the morning sun on the summit and the mist-wrapped foot echo each other. Whereas the final poem, 420, looks back on "a former life," the opening poem celebrates the reign to come.

The first line, "kimi ga yo wa," singles out my lord's reign with "wa," answering the final line of the next poem, "kimi ga miyo kana."
The second line, "kumori mo araji," uses the negative conjectural "ji": there shall be no cloud, with a break after the second line. "Kumori" (cloud) is associated with the "asahi" (morning sun) of the fourth line.
The third line, "Mikasayama," names a poetic place in Yamato Province, the mountain behind the Kasuga Shrine. Poem 418 of this book also names Mount Mikasa in its first line.
The fourth line, "mine ni asahi no," refers to the morning sun shining on the peak of Mount Mikasa. With Mount Asahi, its foot filled with mist, in poem 419, it forms a pair of summit and foot.
The final line, "sasamu kagiri wa," uses the attributive conjectural "mu": so long as the sun shall shine, giving the condition by inversion. "Sasu" (to shine) is associated with the "kasa" (hat) of Mikasa, as one "puts up" a hat.
Author: Oe no Masafusa
Source: Shika Wakashu
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