lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
lnhammer ([personal profile] lnhammer) wrote2009-12-28 08:17 am

Kokinshu #583

    In the autumn fields
tangled flowers are blooming
    in as many shades
as the number of sorrows
I brood on this time of year.

—26 December 2009

Original by Ki no Tsurayuki, writing relatively straightforwardly for once. "Sorrows I brood on" is interpretation -- more literally, "things I think about," but it's placed by the author among other love-complaints so clearly that's the intended sense.


aki no no ni
midarete sakeru
hana no iro no
chigusa ni mono o
omou koro kana


---L.