Kokinshu #304

Written on the bank of a pond on leaves scattering.

    Colored autumn leaves
that drop off when the wind blows --
    the water's so clear,
even unscattered reflections
can be seen within the depths.

—9 September 2012

Original by Ôshikôchi no Mitsune, managing to pull off a poem more lovely than his usual, with sound, image, and syntax all pulling together -- note especially the neat implicit antithesis between fallen-and-drifting leaves and unfallen-and-reflected leaves. It's tempting to render the last line as "are seen floating in the depths," just to bring this out, but that would add a metaphor not explicitly present. Reflections were considered to be within the water, at the bottom -- thus the importance of the clearness.


kaze fukeba
otsuru momijiba
mizu kiyomi
chiranu kage sae
soko ni mietsutsu

---L.