Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Kokinshu #136

Wednesday, 21 September 2011 06:59
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
Written on seeing a cherry bloom in the Fourth Month.

    Is it to prevent
us from saying "So moving!"
    to all the others
that, with spring already past,
this cherry tree blooms alone?

—31 August 2011

Original by Ki no Toshisada, who appears in court records as a minor official from the 870s until his death in 881. He has four poems in the Kokinshu, plus he fails to appear in the headnote of #969. ¶ As extensively lamented in book 2, cherry blossoms are usually over well before the lunisolar Fourth Month (roughly early-May to early-June), which is the first month of summer. What is blooming is hidden in a pivot-word, being the sakura that's the first part of sakuramu ("bloom" with a speculative inflection).


aware chô
koto o amata ni
yaraji to ya
haru ni okurete
hitori sakuramu


---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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