lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
lnhammer ([personal profile] lnhammer) wrote2011-01-10 07:02 am

Kokinshu #48

Topic unknown.

    Even if you fall,
at least leave behind your scent,
    O flowering plum --
it would be a memory
of a season of longing.

—31 October 2010

Original author unknown. The unmarked flower is here clearly the receiver of the imperative "leave behind." Whom the speaker longs for is unstated, but it reads to me as a lover rather than the flowers (specifically, it's a memory of a time of longing, not a memory when (s)he is in such a time), in contrast with the previous two poems.


chirinu tomo
ka o dani nokose
ume no hana
koishiki toki no
omoide ni semu


---L.