いつとなく風吹く空に立つ塵の
数も知られぬ君が御代かな
数も知られぬ君が御代かな
- Roma-ji
-
Itsu to naku kaze fuku sora ni tatsu chiri no kazu mo shirarenu kimi ga miyo kana
- English Translation
-
Ceaselessly they rise,
in the sky where the wind blows,
the motes of dust,
as past all counting is
the reign of our lord
- Meaning
- Like the countless motes of dust rising endlessly into the windblown sky, our lord's reign will run on for years beyond all counting.
- Commentary
-
Book Five Celebration Poems 320
Like the countless motes of dust rising into a sky where the wind never stops, the sovereign's reign will last for years beyond counting, the poem says in celebration. Dust is named as the very image of the countless, a figure for the boundless years of the reign.
Like 'beyond all counting' in poem 313 in this book, it shows the length of the reign through something countless, and it shares the final line 'kimi ga miyo kana' with the preceding poem, 319.
This poem and the next poem, 321, form a pair celebrating the boundless reign through dust and flowers.
The author was Higo, a daughter of Fujiwara no Sadanari, Governor of Higo, who served in the household of the Kyōgoku Regent Fujiwara no Morozane. She was one of the poets of the Horikawa Hundred-Poem Sequences.
First line, 'itsu to naku', means at no fixed time, ceaselessly.
Second line, 'kaze fuku sora ni', means in the sky where the wind blows.
Third line, 'tatsu chiri no', means of the rising dust, a figure for the countless.
Fourth line, 'kazu mo shirarenu', means past all counting, answering the final line 'beyond all counting' of poem 313 in this book.
Final line, 'kimi ga miyo kana', means the reign of our lord, the same final line as the preceding poem, 319, and poem 331 in this book closes with it too.
- Author
- Kyōgoku Kanpaku-ke no Higo
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Nawashiro no mizu wa inai ni makasetari tami yasuge naru kimi ga miyo kana
- Next Poem
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Hana mo mina kimi ga chitose o matsu nareba izure no haru ka iro mo kawaramu