Kokinshu #13
Thursday, 28 October 2010 07:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer(from the same contest)
For a guide, I'll mate
the fragrance of flowers with
the messenger wind,
and send them off to invite
the bush warbler to visit.
(Parentheses around the topic or author indicate that it's carried over from the previous poem.)
hana no ka o
kaze no tayori ni
taguete zo
uguisu sasou
shirube ni wa yaru
---L.
For a guide, I'll mate
the fragrance of flowers with
the messenger wind,
and send them off to invite
the bush warbler to visit.
—19 September 2010
Original by Ki no Tomonori, cousin of Tsurayuki. Another of the compilers of the Kokinshu (which has 46 of his poems), he died before its completion. I like it when classic poets get playful. Note this first indication that the plums have actually bloomed, though it will be a while before we actually see them. Note that given that sasou can have connotations of lure/tempt as well as more formally invite, my interpolated "visit" may be pointing in the wrong direction. In modern Japanese, kaze no tayori is understood as a message on the wind, rather than messenger -- an equivalent idiom to the little bird that tells one things.(Parentheses around the topic or author indicate that it's carried over from the previous poem.)
hana no ka o
kaze no tayori ni
taguete zo
uguisu sasou
shirube ni wa yaru
---L.