Kokinshu #346
Tuesday, 18 December 2012 07:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer (Topic unknown.)
I take my own age
and add it to my lord's
eight thousand years,
and if you retain them use
that time as a memory.
waga yowai
kimi ga yachiyo ni
torisoete
todomeokiteba
omoiide ni seyo
I take my own age
and add it to my lord's
eight thousand years,
and if you retain them use
that time as a memory.
—2 December 2012
(Original author unknown.) The grammar on this one gave me fits -- in particular, whether the "if" clause is the entire first four lines or just the fourth. In the end, I decided it doesn't make a difference to one's understanding in Japanese but it's easier to follow in English if you take it as the latter, especially with the two verbs having different (implied) subjects. (Not to mention, it's a more humble statement that way.) Omitted-but-understood: that the memory is of the speaker.waga yowai
kimi ga yachiyo ni
torisoete
todomeokiteba
omoiide ni seyo