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Kokinshu #153
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 07:01 A poem from the poetry contest held in the palace of the consort in the Kanpyô era.
While I sit brooding
through a midsummer shower,
a cuckoo cries out
in the deepening night --
but which way is he passing?
Also, for those who don't read my LJ, an announcement of prossible interest.
samidare ni
mono omoi oreba
hototogisu
yo fukaku nakite
izuchi yukuramu
---L.
While I sit brooding
through a midsummer shower,
a cuckoo cries out
in the deepening night --
but which way is he passing?
—2 October 2011
Original by Ki no Tomonori. Following that group of anonymous poems, a group of six from this contest. The Japanese rainy season is June-July, during the lunisolar Fifth Month. "Sit" is interpretive -- more literally, he says "while brooding exists." I'm unclear on whether yo fukaku meant "deepening night" or, as in modern Japanese yobukaku, "deep(est) night" -- possibly it's either? Yuku ("go") can, much like the English "pass (on)," also idiomatically mean die, thus loosely tying this to the previous.Also, for those who don't read my LJ, an announcement of prossible interest.
samidare ni
mono omoi oreba
hototogisu
yo fukaku nakite
izuchi yukuramu
---L.