Kokinshu #442
Sunday, 1 September 2013 07:43![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Bellflower blossoms (riutan no hana)
I shall chase away
these birds trampling underfoot
my garden flowers.
Is it because there are none
in the fields that they come here?
waga yado no
hana fumishidaku
tori utamu
no wa nakereba ya
koko ni shimo kuru
---L.
I shall chase away
these birds trampling underfoot
my garden flowers.
Is it because there are none
in the fields that they come here?
—21 July 2013
Original by Ki no Tomonori. This is the native bellflower/gentian (Gentiana scabra, modern rindô), so possibly the same flower as #435 -- and possibly the flowers referred to in the poem. The poem itself is good evidence that the standards of decorum were different for wordplay poems than the rest of the Kokinshu. One commentary notes that the "beating" off (the more literal meaning) is possibly best imagined as throwing rocks -- cranky old guys, they are eternal.waga yado no
hana fumishidaku
tori utamu
no wa nakereba ya
koko ni shimo kuru
---L.