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Kokinshu #307
Tuesday, 25 September 2012 07:00 Topic unknown.
When I stand guard on
the mountain fields where the ears
don't yet clearly show,
there's never a day my rough robes
aren't soaked by the rice-leaves' dew.
ho ni mo idenu
yamada o moru to
fujigoromo
inaba no tsuyu ni
nurenu hi zo naki
---L.
When I stand guard on
the mountain fields where the ears
don't yet clearly show,
there's never a day my rough robes
aren't soaked by the rice-leaves' dew.
—16 September 2012
Original author unknown. If the phrase ho ni mo idenu (see #242) is taken only in the literal sense of "not yet put out ears of grain," this is an unadorned harvest song; if it's taken in the figurative sense of "not yet made obvious," you can read this as a lover's complaint ("she hasn't made it clear she loves me"), with the dew as usual standing in for his tears. (Compare the similar structure of #173, also a love poem, and a few others.) To bring out the possibility, I double-translate the phrase. A fujigoromo is clothing made of rough cloth, especially cloth woven from fibers taken from kudzu vines.ho ni mo idenu
yamada o moru to
fujigoromo
inaba no tsuyu ni
nurenu hi zo naki
---L.