Kokinshu #179
Friday, 16 December 2011 07:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Written the night of the Seventh.
Although it is true
that they meet every year
on Tanabata,
the nights they sleep together
are indeed few in number.
toshi-goto ni
au to wa suredo
tanabata no
nuru yo no kazu zo
sukunakarikeru
Although it is true
that they meet every year
on Tanabata,
the nights they sleep together
are indeed few in number.
—15 November 2011
Original by Ôshikôchi no Mitsune. According to an ambiguous record from a decade after the fact, this poem was pitted against #178 in the Kanpyô Era consort's poetry contest; it's not clear which supposedly won but I hope it wasn't this because, while I may be missing something, the wit sounds to me just as weak in Japanese as in English. "On Tanabata" more properly belongs to the second clause but it sounds more natural in English to move it up, and "together" is another of those omitted-but-understood words.toshi-goto ni
au to wa suredo
tanabata no
nuru yo no kazu zo
sukunakarikeru