Kokinshu #119

Written and sent to some ladies returning from Shiga who had entered Kazan to stop underneath the wisteria blossoms.

    Those who'd just look at
distant things and then go home --
    creep and entwine them,
O wisteria blossoms,
even if your branches break.

—20 July 2011

Original by Henjô. And now the sequence moves from generic spring flowers to two specific late-spring flowers, starting with wisteria. Wisteria blossoms, fuji no hana, is another thing that exactly fills a 5-syllable line and so is unmarked -- though here, fortunately, an imperative verb makes it clear it's being directly addressed. Shiga probably points at a pilgrimage to Sôfuku Temple (see #115) and Kazan is better known as Gangyô Temple, Henjô's primary residence in northeastern Kyoto, noted at the time for its wisteria. Yoso ni, describing the manner of looking, is most readily understood as "elsewhere" but can also mean "apathetically" -- making what on the surface appears a bit of harmless gallantry ("keep those lovely ladies here!") possibly a covert dig at bored or mindless tourists, the sly devil. I've tried to suggest this double-meaning.


yoso ni mite
kaeramu hito ni
fuji no hana
hai-matsuware yo
eda wa oru tomo

---L.