Friday, 7 June 2013

Kokinshu #402

Friday, 7 June 2013 07:06
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
(Topic unknown.)

    With things looking dark,
I wish it fell anyway.
    Then I would hang
the soaked clothes on the spring rains
and so detain my lord here.

—2 June 2013

(Original author unknown.) Textual issue: in l.2 I've emended the goto of my base text to koto for the same reasons as in #82. The speaker is almost certainly a woman talking to or about her lover, given a higher-level courtier wouldn't be making visits to a lower one. Nurekinu kisete means literally "making (someone) wear soaked clothing" but idiomatically "putting the blame on (someone)," often especially to frame them -- and both meanings are relevant here. English can almost reproduce this double meaning, if not quite idiomatically. Kakikurashi also has a double-meaning, to get dark from being overcast and to be depressed.


kakikurashi
koto wa furanamu
harusame ni
nureginu kisete
kimi o todomemu


---L.

About

Warning: contents contain line-breaks.

As language practice, I like to translate poetry. My current project is Chinese, with practice focused on Tang Dynasty poetry. Previously this was classical Japanese, most recently working through the Kokinshu anthology (archived here). Suggestions, corrections, and questions always welcome.

There's also original pomes in the journal archives.

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