Saturday, 3 April 2010

Hyakunin Isshu #52

Saturday, 3 April 2010 08:06
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
    When dawn has broken,
even though I know full well
    that night will return,
I nevertheless resent
the cold first light of morning.

—31 March 2010

Original by Fujiwara no Michinobu, adopted step-son of the Mother of Michitsuna (#53), writing a morning-after poem. The Goshuishu headnote says it was sent after returning home on a snowy day (I'd resent such a morning too) -- thus my "cold," which is not in the original; for a slightly more colloquial version replace it with "damn" (take it as an extension of urameshii's resentful, if you will).


akenureba
kururu mono to wa
shirinagara
nao urameshiki
asaborake kana


---L.

About

Warning: contents contain line-breaks.

As language practice, I like to translate poetry. My current project is Chinese, with practice focused on Tang Dynasty poetry. Previously this was classical Japanese, most recently working through the Kokinshu anthology (archived here). Suggestions, corrections, and questions always welcome.

There's also original pomes in the journal archives.

April 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
678910 1112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   

Page Summary

Style Credit

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios
Page generated Wednesday, 16 July 2025 23:47

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags