Kokinshu #267

Tuesday, 3 July 2012 06:55
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
[personal profile] lnhammer
Written as an autumn poem.

    Although it is pale,
the color of these yellow oaks
    upon Mt. Saho,
the season of autumn, ah!,
has become even deeper.

—21 June 2012

Original by Sakanoue no Korenori. His birth and death dates are unknown, but he participated in the Kanpyô era consort's competition in c.893 and appears in court records as a minor official between 908 and 924. He has seven poems in the Kokinshu. ¶ The entire point being the contrast of the "pale" of yellow oak leaves and autumn getting "deep." As deep autumn and a deep color are different things, I'm not sure the wordplay quite works, even though in both languages the same word is used. I added "yellow" as a gloss-within-the-text.


sahoyama no
hahaso no iro wa
usukeredo
aki wa fukaku mo
narinikeru kana


---L.

About

Warning: contents contain line-breaks.

As language practice, I like to translate poetry. My current project is Chinese, with practice focused on Tang Dynasty poetry. Previously this was classical Japanese, most recently working through the Kokinshu anthology (archived here). Suggestions, corrections, and questions always welcome.

There's also original pomes in the journal archives.

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