Mizu no omo ni matsu no shizue no hichinureba chitose wa ike no kokoro narikeri - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

水の面に松の下枝のひちぬれば
千歳は池のこころなりけり

Roma-ji: Mizu no omo ni matsu no shizue no hichinureba chitose wa ike no kokoro narikeri
English Translation: On the water's face
the lower boughs of the pine
have come to be steeped,
and so a thousand years
lie at the pond's very heart
Meaning: Because the lower branches of the pine are steeped in the water, its thousand years now dwell at the heart of the pond and lie at the pond's will.
Commentary: Book Five Celebration Poems 307

Seeing the lower branches of a pine by the pond steeped in the water, the poet says that since the pine with its thousand years dwells in the pond, the thousand years are the pond's to command. With kokoro meaning both the middle of the pond and the heart, the poem pairs pine and pond to celebrate long life.
After the stream of Iwashimizu in the preceding poem, 306, this poem sings of a pond and a pine.
From poem 305 through poem 310 in this book come poems celebrating a thousand and ten thousand ages through such things as bamboo, the spring of Iwashimizu, pines, cherry blossoms and the poet's own self.

First line, 'mizu no omo ni', means on the water's surface.
Second line, 'matsu no shizue no', means the lower branches of the pine, the tree said to live a thousand years.
Third line, 'hichinureba', means since they are steeped, hitsu meaning to soak or be wet, the realis with ba forming a definite condition.
Fourth line, 'chitose wa ike no', means the pine's thousand years are the pond's.
Final line, 'kokoro narikeri', is a pivot word in which kokoro means both the middle of the pond and the heart, left in kana. It closes with the exclamatory keri.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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