Kokinshu #1

Written when the first day of spring came in the old year.

    I see solar spring
has arrived before New Years.
    So what do we say --
that this time is still "last year"
or part of the "year to come"?

—1-3 September 2010

Original by Ariwara no Motokata, grandson of Ariwara no Narihira. His dates are unknown, but he flourished in late 9th century and has 14 poems in the Kokinshu. As you know, Bob, the Kokinshu (full title Kokinwakashu, "Collection of Old and New Japanese Poems") was the first imperial (as in, commissioned by an emperor) anthology of Japanese poetry, compiled in 20 thematic books around 905 A.D. This is the first poem from the first book, which deals with spring.

In the former lunisolar calendar, spring the calendrical season started with the lunar New Year, which fell in what's now late January or February, while spring the astronomical season started on Risshun, which fell on what's now Feburary 4 or 5. A bit less than half the time, the latter came before the former. Given the number of terms for the period between the two Starts Of Spring, this was apparently a big deal -- enough of one that some wit could be squeezed out. It reads somewhat less laboredly in Japanese, in that for the four mentions of "year," Motokata uses three different words -- but only somewhat.


toshi no uchi ni
haru wa kinikeri
hitotose o
kozo to ya iwamu
kotoshi to ya iwamu

---L.