Kokinshu #366

(Topic unknown.)

    How long must I wait
for the one who this morning
    starts his journey through
autumn fields of bush-clover
where the digger-wasps drone?

—19 February 2013

Original author unknown. In contrast to the previous, this is most easily read as a parting of lovers. The sugaru is an old name for any of several wasps (used poetically in the Man'yoshu as a comparison for a woman's waist), commonly identified specifically as a digger wasp. Keeping the smooth sweep of a direct lyrical statement (also a Man'yoshu styling) meant almost exactly reversing the order of images.


sugaru naku
aki no hagihara
asa tachite
tabiyuku hito o
itsu to ka matamu

---L.