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Hyakunin Isshu #100
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 07:38 This stone-built palace
has ancient eaves overgrown
with Memory Fern,
but even so, there's too much
of the past to remember.
momoshiki ya
furuki nokiba no
shinobu ni mo
nao amari aru
mukashi nari keri
---L.
has ancient eaves overgrown
with Memory Fern,
but even so, there's too much
of the past to remember.
—7 February 2010
Original by Emperor Juntoku, written in exile after joining his abdicated father's unsuccessful 1221 revolt against the Kamakura shogun. It can be read either that there's more memories than the shinobu ("to look back on") ferns can remember, or more memories than there are ferns. I went with the former as making the pivot-word pull more weight. Momoshiki ("100 stones") is a conventional metonymy for a stone castle or palace with no comprehensible English equivalent I could find, so I used the gloss.momoshiki ya
furuki nokiba no
shinobu ni mo
nao amari aru
mukashi nari keri
---L.