Man'yoshu #3570

    When the evening mist
rises above the rushes
    and the wild duck calls
as well in the chilly dusk,
it is you that I think of.

—5 December 2009

An anonymous poem from book XIV. I'm a little uncertain what's going on with the particle shi: it can be read as a serializer, as in this draft, or indicating a consequence, "the duck calls, and so I remember you". I'm starting to think the latter is actually the intended sense. For fun, here's the original in both Old Japanese and modernized forms:


original:
asi nö pa ni
yupugïri datite
kamo ga ne nö
samuki yupu si
na woba sinöbamu

modernized:
ashi no ha ni
yuugiri tachite
kamo ga ne no
samuki yuuhe shi
na o ba shinowamu

---L.