Kokinshu #108
Thursday, 7 July 2011 06:55![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer Written when a poetry contest was held at the house of the Middle Captain's Lady of the Bedchamber in the Ninna era.
Is it the flowers
scattering that's heart-breaking?
On Mount Tatsuta
the voice of the bush warbler
where the springtime haze rises ...
hana no chiru
koto ya wabishiki
harugasumi
tatsuta no yama no
uguisu no koe
---L.
Is it the flowers
scattering that's heart-breaking?
On Mount Tatsuta
the voice of the bush warbler
where the springtime haze rises ...
—30 June 2011
Original by Fujiwara no Nochikage. His dates are unknown, but the contest (recorded only in the Kokinshu) was held some time 885-889 and he appears on court records from the 890s to 919, when he was appointed a provisional provincial governor. This is his only poem in the Kokinshu, but #385-386 were composed for a party in his honor. Mt. Tatsuta (typically an autumn symbol for its famous leaf colors) is in Nara Prefecture, and the tatsu part is a pivot-word meaning "rise" for the haze -- a pivot I'm thankful for, as it limits the grammatical possibilities of the, as usual, unmarked haze. I think I managed to preserve the ambiguity of whether the heart-break is caused by or results in the warbler's voice.hana no chiru
koto ya wabishiki
harugasumi
tatsuta no yama no
uguisu no koe
---L.