Kokinshu #75
Friday, 22 April 2011 07:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Written on seeing the cherry blossoms scatter at Urin Temple.
Although it is spring
in this place where cherry trees
scatter their flowers,
snowflakes continue to fall
and are unable to melt.
And it was with this, dear readers, my understanding solidified that mediocre poems are easier to translate than good ones.
sakura chiru
hana no tokoro wa
haru nagara
yuki zo furitsutsu
kiegateni suru
---L.
Although it is spring
in this place where cherry trees
scatter their flowers,
snowflakes continue to fall
and are unable to melt.
—6 February 2011
Original by Sôku, an otherwise obscure monk with three poems in the Kokinshu. Urin ("cloud forest") was originally a detached palace built for Emperor Junna, later converted to a Tendai temple that came under the control of Henjô in 869; its former site is now part of the grounds of Daitoku Temple at the foot of Mt. Hiei in Kyoto. Koretaka may have lived there after taking vows, which gives an additional connection with #74. The wordiness of my last line (instead of the simpler "and cannot melt") mimics the original.And it was with this, dear readers, my understanding solidified that mediocre poems are easier to translate than good ones.
sakura chiru
hana no tokoro wa
haru nagara
yuki zo furitsutsu
kiegateni suru
---L.