Kokinshu #477
Wednesday, 4 December 2013 07:10![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Reply.
Knowing, not knowing --
why do you uselessly speak
of distinguishing this?
It is love, and only love,
that can act as your guide.
(One of these days I'll have to decide whether, when romanizing, to always treat the inflection of a nari-adjective as a suffix or, as for their modern Japanese descendents, a separate particle. For, yanno, consistancy's sake.)
shiru shiranu
nani ka aya naku
wakite iwamu
omoi nomi koso
shirube narikere
---L.
Knowing, not knowing --
why do you uselessly speak
of distinguishing this?
It is love, and only love,
that can act as your guide.
—25 November 2013
Original by an unknown woman. So decoding the poetic persiflage, Narihira essentially asked, "Will I be able see you?" and she replied, "Why worry about seeing? If you really love me, you'd find a way for us to meet!" This is about as direct a come-on as you'll find in classical Japanese. Some commentaries claim that the hi, "fire," of omo(h)i, "feelings" here rendered as "love," suggests a torch lighting the way -- and maybe it would to someone steeped in the tradition of the time.(One of these days I'll have to decide whether, when romanizing, to always treat the inflection of a nari-adjective as a suffix or, as for their modern Japanese descendents, a separate particle. For, yanno, consistancy's sake.)
shiru shiranu
nani ka aya naku
wakite iwamu
omoi nomi koso
shirube narikere
---L.
no subject
Date: 21 January 2014 04:48 (UTC)One thing I find a bit artless about this poem is the abrupt switch to "knowing, not knowing", when the poem it replies to is about seeing vs not seeing. It's possible I'm missing some profound facet of Heian thought, but as far as I can tell the only reason for using "shiru" is to foreshadow "shirube" in the last line.
P.S. Possible typo in the original of #479; you would expect koishikarIkere instead of koishikarAkere
--Matt
no subject
Date: 22 January 2014 04:40 (UTC)I should have mentioned the shirube echo -- I assume, too, that that's the main reason for getting so archly knowing. And, er, yeah, it's こひしかりけれ. I really need to proofread my romaji before posting.
(I also need to get back to this -- it's been over a month since my last one -- been preoccupied with another project.)
---L.