Kokinshu #597

[lnhammer]

    Though my love is not
some unknown mountain track,
    I am nonetheless
being made miserable
by a heart that loses its way.

—30-31 December 2009

Original by Ki no Tsurayuki. Slightly irregular lines on my part, but regular total syllables. Mayou can mean "to hesitate, waver" as well as "to get lost," and despite the play on words (which seems to be the point of the poem) both senses are surely intended, though I didn't really bring this out in the English. I am amused that "is not" is in adverbial form ("in a way of not existing") -- I hadn't known it could do that meaningfully. ETA: Talk about totally misconstruing a classical verb form ...


waga koi wa
shiranu yamaji ni
aranaku ni
mayou kokoro zo
wabishikarikeru

---L.