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Kokinshu #230
Written and presented [to retired emperor Uda] at the Maidenflower Contest in Suzaku Palace.
O maidenflower
bending, swaying in the wind
in the autumn field,
to whom are your feelings
whole-heartedly inclined?
ominaeshi
aki no no kaze ni
uchinabiki
kokoro hitotsu o
tare ni yosuramu
---L.
O maidenflower
bending, swaying in the wind
in the autumn field,
to whom are your feelings
whole-heartedly inclined?
—7 April 2012
Original by Fujiwara no Tokihira (970–909), who as Minister of the Left led the cabal that ousted Michizane, his rival in the Ministry of the Right (see #272). He has one other poem in the Kokinshu. ¶ Uda held this poetry contest on the topic of maidenflowers in the autumn of 898; Suzaku Palace, also known as the Teiji Palace (see #68), was his primary residence after his retirement. The play on two verbs of motion, one each in literal and figurative senses, is from the original; the duplication of the literal one into two synonyms is all my own, by way of trying to capture the repetitive sense of uchi-. I'm actually rather charmed by this one, possibly because I've been reading far too more Cavalier poetry of late.ominaeshi
aki no no kaze ni
uchinabiki
kokoro hitotsu o
tare ni yosuramu
---L.