On Felicitations and Pines.
たづのゐるながらのはまのはま松のまつとはなしに千世をこそふれ
| tazu no iru nagara no hama no hamamatsu no matsu to wa nashi ni chiyo o koso fure | Cranes rest Upon the long beach at Nagara, where Beach-pines Pine not through A thousand ages passing! |
657
Tag Archives: cranes
Kinkai wakashū 655
On the conception of felicitation.
ひめしまの小松がうれにゐるたづは千とせふれども年おいずけり
| himeshima no komatsu ga ure ni iru tazu wa chitose furedomo toshi oizukeri | Among Himeshima’s[i] Pine seedling shoots Rest cranes: A thousand year may pass, yet They’ll not age through the years.[ii] |
655
[i] Himeshima 姫島 (‘Princess Isle’) was a small island which is believed to have lain in the mouth of the Yodo River where it entered the inland sea south of modern Osaka. Due to changes in topography and the river’s course since ancient times, however, its exact location is now unknown.
[ii] See: [One of] two poems composed to express his grief and sorrow by Kawabe no Miyahito when he saw the coffin of a young girl in the pine groves of Himeshima in Wadō 4 [711]. 妹之名者 千代尓将流 姫嶋之 子松之末尓 蘿生万代尓 imo ga na wa / chiyo ni nagaremu / himeshima no / komatsu ga ure ni / kokemusu made ni ‘This maiden’s name / Will drift down a thousand ages / Until Himeshima’s / Pine seedling shoots are / Choked with hanging moss.’ (Man’yōshū II: 228)
Kinkai wakashū 624
Kinkai wakashū 623
Composed and sent to the residence of the Superintendent Abbot of Tsurugaoka[i] on a morning when snow had fallen.
| tsuru no oka ōgite mireba mine no matsu kozue haruka ni yuki zo tsumoreru | When to the Hill of Cranes I lift up my gaze, On the peaks beyond, pine Treetops in the distance Are covered with drifted snow. |
623
[i] Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine (Tsurugaoka hachimangū 鶴岡八幡宮) is located in Yukinoshita in Kamakura and venerated Hachiman, the deity of war and warriors as the patron of the Minamoto clan. The shrine thus was, and still is, one of the focal points of the city and where many of its most important festivals are held. It was also the location of Sanetomo’s assassination in 1219. The Superintendent Abbot (bettō sōzu 別当僧都) to whom Sanetomo sent this time was probably the shrine’s third, Teigyō 定暁 (dates unknown) (Higuchi 2016, 96).
