Kokinshu #239

[lnhammer]

A poem from the poetry contest at the house of Prince Koresada.

    What kind of person
comes here, takes off, and hangs up
    these "purple-trousers"
that perfume up the meadow
every autumn when I come?

—22 April 2012

Original by Fujiwara no Toshiyuki. Fujibakama (Eupatorium fortunei, a species of thoroughwort or boneset) is another of the seven flowers of autumn, a shrub with clusters of sweet-smelling lavender blooms early in the season, whose name just happens to sound like "purple pants" -- cue a round of poetic sniggering into sleeves. Because its flowers are scented (and indeed were used to perfume clothes), I understand noiu in that sense, rather than the being showy one. Its name is another key 5-syllable word missing a case-marker: here it could be subject/topic of "to perfume" or direct address, but the latter's a syntactic stretch. There's a debate over wither to understand kite in line 2 as "come and" or "put on and" -- the latter is tempting, as the former makes for a clunky repetition, but it's not like it's a particularly good poem regardless. In the original, it's actually the first half that's the relative clause modifying the flowers, rather than the second, but rendering that literally deemphasizes the "who" question too much.


nanihito ka
kite nugi-kakeshi
fukibakama
kuru aki-goto ni
nobe o niowasu

---L.