lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
lnhammer ([personal profile] lnhammer) wrote2011-02-11 07:21 am

Kokinshu #64

Topic unknown.

    For all my longings,
they still leave nothing behind
    once they have scattered --
if I am to pluck blossoms,
it's today I must pluck them.

—23 November 2010

Original author unknown. Literally, it's just sakura to be plucked, but in English "cherry" means the fruit not the flower. Note that mono o is not the modern particle indicating a complaint, but a conjunction indicating that a consequence follows: "therefore."


chirinureba
kouredo shirushi
naki mono o
kyô koso sakura
oraba oriteme


---L.