Hyakunin Isshu #65

    Bitterness and woe!
It's bad enough that my sleeves
    never do dry out,
but worse, what's been rotted
by this love is my good name.

—22 March 2010

Original by Lady Sagame, another Heian lady known only by a sobriquet derived from a male relative -- in this case her husband, one-time governor of that province. The sleeves are of course wet from crying, and love rots her name in the sense that the affair has caused a scandal. Grammatical ambiguity that's long been debated: has the fabric of her always-wet sleeves also "rotted" (kuchiru -- I'd translate it "ruin" but that really isn't the meaning) or is it, in contrast, just her reputation? I read it as the latter for greater contrast and wit.


urami wabi
hosanu sode dani
aru mono o
koi ni kuchinan
na koso oshikere

---L.