Kokinshu #97
Saturday, 11 June 2011 06:56![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Topic unknown.
Every spring there
certainly will always be
flowers blossoming,
but seeing them once more
depends upon my lifespan.
harugoto ni
hana no sakari wa
arinamedo
aimimu koto wa
inochi narekeri
---L.
Every spring there
certainly will always be
flowers blossoming,
but seeing them once more
depends upon my lifespan.
—8 Jun 2011
Original author unknown. What doesn't come through in translation: the seeing is a mutual action -- an encounter with the flowers rather than just spotting them. The original last line is a terse in a way that English can't readily reproduce: more literally, the seeing "is (mortal) life." The general clunkiness is not the fault of English but my own.harugoto ni
hana no sakari wa
arinamedo
aimimu koto wa
inochi narekeri
---L.