![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kokinshu #256
Monday, 11 June 2012 06:53 Written on seeing the autumn leaves on Mt. Otowa when he made a pilgrimage to Ishiyama.
Ever since the day
I heard the autumn winds blow,
even the treetops
on the peak of Mt. Otowa
have, ah!, been changing colors.
akikaze no
fukinishi hi yori
otowayama
mine no kozue mo
irozukinikeri
---L.
Ever since the day
I heard the autumn winds blow,
even the treetops
on the peak of Mt. Otowa
have, ah!, been changing colors.
—4 June 2012
Original by Ki no Tsurayuki. Ishiyama ("stone mountain") Temple was another pilgrimage site on the western shore of Lake Biwa. Otowa (see #142) is noted for its autumn leaves; its name is a possible pivot-word, where the oto can be understood as "sound" -- whether to do so is debated because syntactically it would belong to the second clause but logically should go with the first. I chose to do so in part because it makes the reuse of the first two lines of #173 pull more weight. Why it's surprising that "even" high-altitude leaves are changing is obscure.akikaze no
fukinishi hi yori
otowayama
mine no kozue mo
irozukinikeri
---L.