Hyakunin Isshu #13
Wednesday, 7 April 2010 07:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Like Mina River
tumbling down from the twin peaks
of Mount Tsukuba,
my love too has collected
and become a deep, still pool.
tsukuba-ne no
mine yori otsuru
mina-no-gawa
koi zo tsumorite
fuchi to narinuru
---L.
tumbling down from the twin peaks
of Mount Tsukuba,
my love too has collected
and become a deep, still pool.
—5 April 2010
Original by Retired Emperor Yôzei, the father of Motoyoshi (#20), written while courting the daughter of Emperor Kôkô (#15) some time after being deposed (in favor of Kôkô) in 884 at age 17 for mental instability. Mount Tsukuba has two peaks, named Man and Woman, and between them was the source of the Mina, written with the ateji (irregular spelling) of the two kanji for man and woman. They therefore make frequent cameo appearances in love poems, despite being in the far barbaric north in what's now Ibaraki Prefecture. Translating these associated overtones (not to mention the soundplay) require more ingenuity than I possess, however -- thus this footnote.tsukuba-ne no
mine yori otsuru
mina-no-gawa
koi zo tsumorite
fuchi to narinuru
---L.