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Kokinshu #46
Thursday, 6 January 2011 07:06 A poem from the poetry contest held in the palace of the consort in the Kanpyô era.
If I permeated
my sleeve with the scent of plum
and so captured it,
it would be a memento
even if spring departed.
ume ga ka o
sode ni utsushite
todometeba
haru wa sugu to mo
katami naramashi
---L.
If I permeated
my sleeve with the scent of plum
and so captured it,
it would be a memento
even if spring departed.
—31 October 2010
Original author unknown -- or so the Kokinshu claims, despite all four editors having participated in the contest. Three other poems from the contest (of the sixty-odd included) are also given anonymously. A more literal rendering of the first two lines would be "if I could transfer / the scent of plum to my sleeve," but that's more strained and awkward. The poignancy of the final verb's conjugation as a counter-factual supposition doesn't really come through in translation -- English doesn't readily distinguish between that and other conjectural modes.ume ga ka o
sode ni utsushite
todometeba
haru wa sugu to mo
katami naramashi
---L.