Kokinshu #326

[lnhammer]

A poem from the poetry contest held in the palace of the consort in the Kanpyô era.

    The driven snow that
comes falling close to the shore --
    might I be seeing
the white waves crossing over
Pine Mountain in Sue?

—2 October 2012

Original by Fujiwara no Okikaze. The location of Sue is uncertain, but its Mt. Pine appears in #1093, a folk song from the Michinoku region (roughly corresponding to the entire east coast of northern Honshu) in which a lover protests he will be faithful until waves wash over the mountain, from which the place became a "poem pillow," or location with poetic associations -- one that makes this not a seasonal poem but an accusation pointed at an unfaithful lover. In any case, given Kyoto is nowhere near the coast, it's a purely imagined scene, if a dramatically visual one. "Driven" is interpretive, but implied by the verb and the comparison. Note the implied contrast of white flakes and dark waves/trees.


ura chikaku
furikuru yuki wa
shiranami no
sue no matsuyama
kosu ka to zo miru

---L.