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Kokinshu #822
Wednesday, 6 April 2011 07:05 Topic unknown.
Like rice in the field
meeting the chill autumn wind,
losing your interest
and favor is bitter indeed.
Since I feel I've become useless ...
akikaze ni
au ta no mi koso
kanashikeri
waga mi munashiku
narinu to omoeba
---L.
Like rice in the field
meeting the chill autumn wind,
losing your interest
and favor is bitter indeed.
Since I feel I've become useless ...
—6-14 January 2011
Original by Ono no Komachi. I struggled over this one more than any other of Komachi's poems (even #938 and #1030) because the pivot-words (aki = "autumn" / "being tired of" and ta no mi="grain of the rice-field" / tanomi="favor") create two separate but overlaid phrases describing what's bitter: "ears of rice met by autumn winds" and "the favors met from (one who is) tired (of me)". The overlay creates in an implicit comparison, which I made an explicit simile; the interpolated "chill" has less justification, though. And then there's how to handle ending with a conjunction meaning "because" without a consequent clause ...akikaze ni
au ta no mi koso
kanashikeri
waga mi munashiku
narinu to omoeba
---L.