Kokinshu #14
Saturday, 30 October 2010 08:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer(from the same contest)
If not for the call
of the bush warbler coming
out of the valley,
who then would be aware of
the arrival of springtime?
uguisu no
tani yori izuru
koe naku wa
haru kuru koto o
tare ka shiramashi
---L.
If not for the call
of the bush warbler coming
out of the valley,
who then would be aware of
the arrival of springtime?
—20 September 2010
Original by Ôe no Chisato, nephew of Ariwara no Narihira and another poet who flourished from the 890s to around 920 but whose birth and death dates are unknown. He has 10 poems in the Kokinshu. After the tease of their scent in #13, we've lost the flowers again. We also swing from playful to arch, this time with a whiff of pedantry in the form of an allusion to a Chinese poem from the Book of Songs.uguisu no
tani yori izuru
koe naku wa
haru kuru koto o
tare ka shiramashi
---L.