Kokinshu #198

[lnhammer]

Topic unknown.

    Is it because
even autumn bush-clovers
    are changing colors
that crickets find this night as
wretched as I, sleepless, do?

—15 January 2012

Original author unknown. Japanese bush-clover (various species of Lespedeza, in poetry often specifically Lespedeza bicolor) is one of the canonical seven flowers of autumn, blooming in early in the season; its leaves turn colorful later on, meaning we haven't shifted all the way back to the chronological sequence just yet. Note the assumption of, without actually using, the naku = "call"/"weep" pun. Slightly better technical verse would be "that crickets find the night is / as sad as I, sleepless, do?" but that undertranslates the pain of kanashiki. As it is, I'm not satisfied with how awkwardly I've rendered what's a quite good original.


akihagi mo
irozukinureba
kirigirisu
waga nenu goto ya
yoru wa kanashiki

---L.