Hyakunin Isshu #20

    As bad as things are,
it's all the same to me now --
    I shall still meet you
even if I am ruined
like Naniwa's channel marks.

—27 February 2010

Original by Prince Motoyoshi (son of Emperor Yosei of #13) writing to Lady Kyogoku, a consort of Emperor Uda, after their affair had come to light. Pivot word: miotsukushi = chanel marker / mi o tsukishite = destroying oneself. The markers are wooden stakes, which wear out easily. Note that it's possible to take the na of Naniwa (a harbor in what's now Osaka Bay) as another pivot with the second meaning "name," with the reading that it's a reputation (either hers or his own) he's willing ruin, rather than his own life -- plus other double-readings are also possible, so that critics since before Teika have debated the correct interpretation(s). Whether life or rep, I take it to be his he is risking, though privately I still worry about her safety. I also worry that my opening line isn't as strong as the original.


wabi nureba
ima hata onaji
naniwa naru
mi o tsukushite mo
awan to zo omou

---L.