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Hyakunin Isshu #75
ETA: Posted this one too soon -- have revised to be more faithful to the original grammar.
Your promises were,
like "dew on a moxa plant,"
life itself to me --
alas, it seems that this year
even autumn has passed by.Despite line three not ending with a final verb form, I chose to break this into two sentences -- sounded better.
chigiri okishi
sasemo ga tsuyu o
inochi ni te
aware kotoshi no
aki mo inumeri
---L.
Your promises were,
like "dew on a moxa plant,"
life itself to me --
alas, it seems that this year
even autumn has passed by.
—17-18 March 2010
Original by Fujiwara no Mototoshi, sent to regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi (#76) after his son was passed over for an appointment. Lots of erudite literarisms in this one. One difficulty is sasemo, which is more usually sashimo(gusa) (modern yomogigusa) = mugwort or artemesia, the main component of medicinal moxa. Tadamichi's promise included an allusion to an older poem, to the effect of being as constant as fields of moxa -- Mototoshi transformed this to refer to the plant itself.chigiri okishi
sasemo ga tsuyu o
inochi ni te
aware kotoshi no
aki mo inumeri
---L.