Kokinshu #447

Yamashi

    O cuckoo,
did you mingle with the clouds
    of the mountain peaks?
Though I hear you are present,
I cannot even glimpse you.

—25 August 2013

Original by Taira no Atsuyuki, a great-grandson of Emperor Kôkô who had a career as a middling courtier between 893 and his death in 910. He has this one poem in the Kokinshu ¶ We know that the yamashi is a small purple lily also sometimes called hanasuge ("flower-sedge"), but not what it's called now. The level of not-knowing, however, apparently is not as high as for the three mysterious plants. Its seasonality is uncertain, and the poem itself is clearly summer -- and indeed, around here, the chronological progression starts getting rather muddled.


hototogisu
mine no kumo ni ya
majirinishi
ari to wa kikedo
miru yoshi mo naki

---L.