Kokinshu #26

[lnhammer]

(Composed when the emperor commanded a poem be presented.)

    And such a springtime! --
tangling together the threads
    of the green willows,
disordering the flowers
that burst apart at the seams.

—14 October 2010

(Original by Ki no Tsurayuki.) Chronology problem: in the progression of the seasons, this skips ahead to willows coming into leaf during cherry blossom time, while the sequence still hasn't gotten plum flowers fully open. Commentaries explain this away as a poem focused on the leafbuds, as part of a mini-arc on the greening of spring, but given the vividness of the flowers' fraying clothing, I'm not convinced that's the focus. As for the poem itself, it is dressed in robes of learnedness, with the images of willow branches as threads and flowers bursting their seams both coming from Chinese poetry. I couldn't reproduce the original's balance of willow and flowers on either side of the middle line's spring (marked with three separate emphatic particles), and as it is I took some liberties with the verbs. At least I managed a pleasantly Chinese chiasmus in the two parallel images.


aoyagi no
ito yorikakuru
haru shi mo zo
midarete hana no
hokorobinikeru

---L.