Hyakunin Isshu #42

[lnhammer]

    We promised! -- while we
both repeatedly wrung out
    our tear-sodden sleeves,
that the waves would never cross
Matsu Mountain in Sue ...

—24 February 2010

Original by Kiyohara no Motosuke, grandson of Fukayabu (#36) and father of Sei Shonagon (#62), writing for a friend to send to a lady "who had changed her mind." Sentence order inversion, jilted lover's anguished syntax, and bonus multiple archaic auxiliary verbs oh joy. The thing about the waves is a witty reference to Kokinshu #1093, in which lovers promise to stay true until that happened, which quickly became a cliche.


chigiriki na
katami ni sode o
shiboritsutsu
sue no matsuyama
nami kosaji to wa

---L.