Sunday, 21 November 2010

lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
Composed when the emperor commanded a poem be presented.

    My sweetheart spreads out
her robes in the spring shower,
    and with each rainfall
the green of the open fields
grows surpassingly vivid.

—29 September 2010

Original by Ki no Tsurayuki. Commentaries connect the spreading of the robe to the annual springtime washing and airing out of the wardrobe, thus giving the prefatory statement no connection to the rest aside from providing the pivot-word haru = "to stretch/spread out" / harusame = "spring rains". As this is more heavy-handed than I expect for Tsurayuki, I suggest an alternate interpretation. My reading would, however, make more sense if seko was not (at the time) a strongly gendered word for sweetheart/wife -- what is a Heian court lady doing outside in the rain? Note that this has the same last line as in #24 (to order of a verb inflection because it's a bound form paired with zo).


waga seko ga
koromo harusame
furu-goto ni
nobe no midori zo
iro masarikeru


---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.

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