Kokinshu #302
Saturday, 15 September 2012 06:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Written on the bank of the Tatsuta River.
If these colored leaves
had not floated upon you,
Tatsuta River,
who could have known the coming
of autumn to your waters?
momijiba no
nagarezariseba
tatsutagawa
mizu no aki o-ba
tare ka shiramashi
---L.
If these colored leaves
had not floated upon you,
Tatsuta River,
who could have known the coming
of autumn to your waters?
—9 September 2012
Original by Sakanoue no Korenori. Compare to the much better #118. "Coming" is another of those omitted-but-understood verbs. Although I like the effect of the inflection pileup on the second-line verb ("if (they) had not floated") -- those usually end up in the final line -- this is otherwise a thoroughly pedestrian poem, making its popularity in later anthologies all the more surprising.momijiba no
nagarezariseba
tatsutagawa
mizu no aki o-ba
tare ka shiramashi
---L.