Kokinshu #195
Monday, 23 January 2012 07:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Written on the moon.
The light of the moon
of this night in autumn:
is it because it's
so bright that I was able
to cross even Mt. Shadows?
aki no yo no
tsuki no hikari shi
akakereba
kurabu no yama mo
koenuberanari
---L.
The light of the moon
of this night in autumn:
is it because it's
so bright that I was able
to cross even Mt. Shadows?
—10 January 2012
Original by Ariwara no Motokata. For Kurabu, see #39. It was tempting to render it as Mt. Darkness to highlight how pedestrian a poet Motokata is compared to Tsurayuki, but I re-used Shadows for consistency; I reserve the right to change my mind, though, if it serves a later poem to translate it differently. My initial draft was "This autumn night's moon: / is it because its light is / shining so brightly / that I was able etc," but I realized this jazzed up Motokata's banality too much.aki no yo no
tsuki no hikari shi
akakereba
kurabu no yama mo
koenuberanari
---L.