Kokinshu #253
Tuesday, 5 June 2012 06:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer (Topic unknown.)
Though the winter rains
of the Godless Month are not
even falling yet,
it's the consecrated grove
where the leaves already change.
kannazuki
shigure mo imada
furanaku ni
kanete utsurou
kannabi no mori
---L.
Though the winter rains
of the Godless Month are not
even falling yet,
it's the consecrated grove
where the leaves already change.
—29 May 2012
(Original author unknown.) Finally, definitely changing colors. The Godless Month (kannazuki or kaminazuki), when the Shinto deities all leave their local shrines for their annual convention in Izumo, is the lunisolar Tenth Month -- the first month of winter, roughly early-November to early-December. Note the reappearance of the belief that water causes leaves to change colors, which will show up intermittently over the next several poems. It's not clear whether kannabi is supposed to be a specific, unidentified place or understood generically as "consecrated"/"sacred" -- I went with the latter to highlight the wordplay on the time and place. "Leaves" is another omitted-but-understood word, as is "it's."kannazuki
shigure mo imada
furanaku ni
kanete utsurou
kannabi no mori
---L.