長浜の真砂の数も何ならじ
尽きせず見ゆる君が御代かな
尽きせず見ゆる君が御代かな
- Roma-ji
-
Nagahama no masago no kazu mo nani naraji tsukisezu miyuru kimi ga miyo kana
- English Translation
-
The grains of sand
upon the shore of Nagahama,
though countless, are as nothing —
so endless it appears,
the reign of my sovereign lord
- Meaning
- Even the countless grains of sand on the shore of Nagahama are as nothing beside it — how endless my lord's reign appears!
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Poems from Variant Manuscripts 417
The poem celebrates a reign that goes on without end, beside which even the countless grains of sand at Nagahama do not count. Invoking the multitude of sand on the shore, it expresses the boundless length of the reign.
The source text gives a number from variant materials, which suggests that in variant manuscripts this poem stood in Book Five, Poems of Celebration, between poems 167 and 168 of this anthology. Among the songs of the Bureau of Court Music in the Kokin Wakashu is "kimi ga yo wa kagiri mo araji Nagahama no masago no kazu wa yomitsukusu tomo," composed as a song of Ise Province for the Great Thanksgiving of Emperor Koko, and the conceit of comparing the sand of Nagahama with the length of the reign appears to draw on it.
Whereas the preceding poem, 416, celebrates a reign without a cloud, this one celebrates a reign without end, so that the two together sing of the brightness and the length of the reign.
The first line, "Nagahama no," names a poetic place in Ise Province, a long stretch of shore.
The second line, "masago no kazu mo," refers to the number of fine grains of sand on the shore, adding "mo": even that.
The third line, "nani naraji," uses the negative conjectural "ji": it will hardly count, with a break after the third line.
The fourth line, "tsukisezu miyuru," uses the negative "zu": appearing without end.
The final line, "kimi ga miyo kana," ends with the exclamatory "kana": such is my lord's reign. It answers the first line of the preceding poem, "kimi ga yo wa."
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Kimi ga yo wa kumori mo araji Mikasayama mine ni asahi no sasamu kagiri wa
- Next Poem
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Mikasayama sashite kinikeri Isonokami furuki miyuki no ato o tazunete