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Kokinshu #449
Tuesday, 17 September 2013 07:06 River-weed (kawanagusa)
How on earth might this
bring me comfort in these dreams
black as lily seeds?
-- I with a heart not even
satisfied by the real world!
ubatama no
yume ni nani ka wa
nagusamamu
utsutsu ni dani mo
akanu kokoro wa
---L.
How on earth might this
bring me comfort in these dreams
black as lily seeds?
-- I with a heart not even
satisfied by the real world!
25 August 2013
Original by Kiyowara no Fukayabu. Kawanagusa (literally "river-grass") is the third of the three mysterious plants of the Kokinshu -- evidently some sort of riverine water-plant. I've no idea what season it might apply to. Ubatama no, "of/as leopard-lily seeds," is a stock epithet for the night and things associated with it such as, here, "dreams," conveying a general, highly poetic sense of "pitch-black." Unstated-but-understood: the dreams are of seeing his lover.ubatama no
yume ni nani ka wa
nagusamamu
utsutsu ni dani mo
akanu kokoro wa
---L.