Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Kokinshu #83

Tuesday, 10 May 2011 07:05
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
Written when someone said nothing scatters as quickly as cherry blossoms.

    I cannot believe
the cherry blossoms scatter
    especially quickly,
for a person's heart can change
even before the wind blows.

—3 April 2011

(Original by Ki no Tsurayuki.) "For" is interpolation but is clearly the intended relationship between clauses, while "change" is a sort of double-meaning (not quite a pivot-word) of "blow," brought out by the contrast of the emphatic zo with the "even" of mo. The blowing is actually a negative potential form ("cannot blow"), which I have trouble understanding as anything but part of an implied temporal sequence.


sakurabana
toku chirinu to mo
omooezu
hito no kokoro zo
kaze mo fukiaenu


---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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