くらゐ山木だかくならん松にのみやほ万代と春風ぞふく

kuraiyama kodakaku naran matsu ni nomi yaoyorozuyo to harukaze zo fuku

On Mount Kurai[i] Tall will become the pines trees ‘Simply wait Eight million ages,’ whispers The gusting breeze of spring!

662

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[i] Mount Kurai (kuraiyama 位山), lies in what is now northern Gifu prefecture, and is one of the peaks in the Hida Mountains (hida sanmyaku 飛騨山脈), also known as the Northern Alps, stretching through north central Honshu. Its use here, however, is purely because kurai 位, was homophonous with the word for ‘court rank’. As matsu 松 (‘pine tree’) was also homophonous with matsu 待つ (‘wait’), the poem is a dual play on words