Kokinshu #277
Monday, 23 July 2012 07:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Written on white chrysanthemum flowers.
To pick one at all,
I must pick it at random:
a white flower
of the late chrysanthemums
camouflaged by the first frost.
And with this, I'm a quarter of the way through the Kokinshu. Woofs.
kokoro-ate ni
orabaya oramu
hatsushimo no
oki-madowaseru
shiragiku no hana
---L.
To pick one at all,
I must pick it at random:
a white flower
of the late chrysanthemums
camouflaged by the first frost.
—7 Februrary 2010, rev. 20-24 September 2011
Original by Ôshikôchi no Mitsune. Previously posted in an earlier revision as Hyakunin Isshu #29. Kokoro-ate ni (literally, "by bits-of-heart") more usually means "by guesswork," but "at random" is also a connotation. With the first frost, winter approaches -- which I emphasize with the interpretive "late." Compare to the confusions of snow and plum flowers from winter's other shoulder season early in book 1. All in all, one of Mitsune's better poems.And with this, I'm a quarter of the way through the Kokinshu. Woofs.
kokoro-ate ni
orabaya oramu
hatsushimo no
oki-madowaseru
shiragiku no hana
---L.