Kokinshu #341
Sunday, 2 December 2012 09:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Written at the end of the year.
"Yesterday," I say,
then "Today" as time passes --
and so Tomorrow
the Asuka River flows on
and is the swift months and days.
kinô to ii
kyô to kurashite
asukagawa
nagarete hayaki
tsuki hi narikeri
---L.
"Yesterday," I say,
then "Today" as time passes --
and so Tomorrow
the Asuka River flows on
and is the swift months and days.
—19 November & 2 December 2012
Original by Harumichi no Tsuraki. For the Asuka, see #284. Its name is a pivot-word on asu, "tomorrow." How to join the phrases is not entirely clear -- I read an adverb of time, but it could just as easily be an impled genitive ("tomorrow's Asuka flows") or even the subject of flow ("tomorrow (like the) Asuka flows"). Slightly more natural in English would be a comparison "like the swift months and days," but the original really does say that whatever is flowing "is" passing time. Compare the wordplay to #933, where in the Asuka yesterday's depths become today's shallows.kinô to ii
kyô to kurashite
asukagawa
nagarete hayaki
tsuki hi narikeri
---L.