Kokinshu #9
Wednesday, 20 October 2010 07:01![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerWritten on falling snow.
The mists rise, and too
the buds are swelling on the trees --
when spring snowflakes fall,
they are flowers scattering
even in towns without flowers.
kasumi tachi
ko no me mo haru no
yuki fureba
hana naki sato mo
hana zo chirikeru
Edited: to repeat "flower" to match original's deliberately repeated hana.
---L.
The mists rise, and too
the buds are swelling on the trees --
when spring snowflakes fall,
they are flowers scattering
even in towns without flowers.
—13 September 2010
Original by Ki no Tsurayuki. The rising of mists as the world melts and warms is another Japanese signal of early spring. Pivot word: haru = "to swell" / "spring". Note that it's not "as if" the snow is flowers, but a direct metaphor emphasized by an inflection indicating a realization. Subtle wordplay I've no idea how (or whether) to replicate in English: buried in tachi ko no me ("rise, tree-buds") is the sounds of the stem of tachikomeru, "to enshroud," which would apply to the mists just before. (The Japanese commentary that pointed this out found it "interesting.") Again, Tsurayuki manages to fit more into a small poem than you think ought to be possible, and make it all sound effortless and lovely.kasumi tachi
ko no me mo haru no
yuki fureba
hana naki sato mo
hana zo chirikeru
Edited: to repeat "flower" to match original's deliberately repeated hana.
---L.