Hyakunin Isshu #96

    Here in the garden,
this isn't snow but flowers
    lured by the storm winds,
and that which falls is indeed
the years upon my body.

—14 August 2010

Original by Fujiwara no Kintsune, brother-in-law of Teika (#97). Pivot: furi = "to fall" (as in precipitate) / furi-yuki = "to grow old" -- I interpolated "the years upon" to replicate the same pun within "falls". Similar conceit to #9, only with self-pity instead of regret, and far less lovely and dense.


hana sasou
arashi no niwa no
yuki narade
furiyuki mono wa
waga mi narikeri

---L.