lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
lnhammer ([personal profile] lnhammer) wrote2011-08-30 07:05 am

Kokinshu #129

Written on flowers floating down a stream while crossing the mountains near the end of the Third Month.

    When I follow
hither and yon the waters
    with scattered flowers,
I see that in the mountains
spring has also passed away.

—3 & 24 august 2011

Original by Kiyowara no Fukayabu, whose dates are unknown but he appears in court records through the first three decades of the 10th century; he has 17 poems in the Kokinshu. (Incidentally, his grandson, or possibly son, Motosuke was the father of Sei Shonagon.) Note the contrast, pointed up by their balanced placement, of water and mountain.


hana chireru
mizu no manimani
tomekureba
yama ni wa haru mo
nakunarinikeri


---L.

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