Kimi ga yo no hodo o ba shirade sumiyoshi no matsu o hisashi to omoikeru kana - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君が代のほどをば知らで住吉の
松を久しと思ひけるかな

Roma-ji: Kimi ga yo no hodo o ba shirade sumiyoshi no matsu o hisashi to omoikeru kana
English Translation: Not knowing how long
the reign of our lord would be,
the pines of Sumiyoshi
were what I had thought of
as the longest-lived of all
Meaning: Not knowing how long our lord's reign would last, I had thought the pines of Sumiyoshi were the very image of long life.
Commentary: Book Five Celebration Poems 312

The pines of Sumiyoshi have long been emblems of long life, but that was only because the poet did not know how long the sovereign's reign would be; beside it, even those pines cannot be called ancient. Citing the very emblem of longevity, the poem celebrates a reign that outlasts it.
The pines of Sumiyoshi have been sung as ancient, as in the Kokinshū poem wondering how many ages the little pine on Sumiyoshi's shore has seen. Following 'the pine's topmost leaves' in the preceding poem, 311, this poem too sings of pines.
From poem 311 through poem 314 in this book come poems celebrating the long reign of the sovereign through pines, white waves and cherry blossoms.
The author, Tsunenobu, is Minamoto no Tsunenobu. A son of Minamoto no Michikata, he rose to Major Counselor and was called the Katsura Counselor. In his last years he died at his post as Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu. He was the father of the compiler, Minamoto no Toshiyori.

First line, 'kimi ga yo no', means of our lord's reign, singing of the reign like the preceding poem, 311.
Second line, 'hodo o ba shirade', means not knowing its length, using the negative conjunctive de.
Third line, 'sumiyoshi no', is Sumiyoshi in Settsu, a poetic place famed for its pines.
Fourth line, 'matsu o hisashi to', means the pines as long-lived, the emblem of long life.
Final line, 'omoikeru kana', means so I had thought, the attributive of the exclamatory keri with kana, expressing the realization of a past mistake.
Author: Minamoto no Tsunenobu
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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