Kokinshu #294

(for the same screen)

    Unheard of even
in the age of the awesome gods
    -- with the autumn leaves
Tatsuta River tie-dyes
its waters Chinese crimson.

—30(?) December 2009, rev'd May-August 2012

Original by Ariwara no Narihira. Previously posted as Hyakunin Isshu #17 with slight changes since. There was a type of red brocade from Szechuan admired in Japan. The leaves are interpolated from the (carried over) headnote, and in normal sentence order, the first two lines would go last.


chihayaburu
kami yo mo kikazu
tatsutagawa
karakurenai ni
mizu kukuru to wa

---L.