Nayotake no nanamomosoji oinuredo yaso no chifushi wa iro mo kawarazu

なよ竹のななももそぢ老いぬれど
八十の千節は色も変はらず

Roma-ji: Nayotake no nanamomosoji oinuredo yaso no chifushi wa iro mo kawarazu
English Translation: The supple bamboo
through countless years and seasons
has now grown old,
yet its eighty thousand joints
have never changed their colour.
Meaning: The supple bamboo has grown old through countless years, yet its many, many joints have not changed their colour at all.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 662

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Celebration through the bamboo"
The supple bamboo has aged through long years, yet its countless joints stay green and unchanged. In the unfading green of the bamboo the poet blesses long life and the lasting reign. Kamo no Mabuchi marked it with a sign of praise.
The Ruijū text places it among the "poems found in other and printed texts." The meaning of nanamomosoji in line 2 is unclear; it is taken as piling up numbers to mean many years.

Line 1 means "of the supple bamboo," sharing its opening with the next poem, 663, the bamboo poems continuing.
Line 2 is taken to mean "many years," six syllables.
Line 3 means "though it has grown old," adversative.
Line 4 means "its many joints," yaso, "eighty," and chi, "thousand," heaping up numbers.
Line 5 means "the colour does not change," like "the colour is not hidden" in the preceding poem.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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