Kokinshu #116

Wednesday, 27 July 2011 07:12
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
[personal profile] lnhammer
A poem from the poetry contest held in the palace of the consort in the Kanpyô era.

    Though I came to pluck
the young greens in the spring fields,
    my way was confused
by the flowers of late spring
mingling and scattering.

—19 July 2011

(Original by Ki no Tsurayuki.) Picking young greens is done in early spring (starting back some 90 poems ago) while flowers scattering is a late spring event -- giving an effect that's almost Rip-Van-Winkle-ish, or maybe I should say Urashima-ish. To make the timeslip more clear out of cultural context, I added "of late spring."


haru no no ni
wakana tsumamu to
koshi mono o
chirikau hana ni
michi wa madoinu


---L.

Date: 28 July 2011 01:50 (UTC)
movingfinger: (Default)
From: [personal profile] movingfinger
Have you read Angelica Lost and Found by Russell Hoban? It seemed to be something you might like.

Date: 28 July 2011 04:47 (UTC)
movingfinger: (Default)
From: [personal profile] movingfinger
Yes, up your alley, possibly even on your back doorstep.

Guardian review here.

Date: 29 July 2011 07:40 (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
How about if the "koshi" means that the first part is "I came this way before to pick young greens in (early) spring fields, but now (in late spring) the flowers are mingling and scattering and making me lose my way"? That way it's a sort of mini-evocation of the arc of spring in Japanese poetry: release from winter into joyful rebirth, followed by all the petals falling off everything while you get drunk and emotional. (No idea if this is an authoritative interpretation.)

Also, any particular reason why "mingling and scattering" when, if "scattering" is read as the act of departing from the branch, the logical order is the other way around?

About

Warning: contents contain line-breaks.

As language practice, I like to translate poetry. My current project is Chinese, with practice focused on Tang Dynasty poetry. Previously this was classical Japanese, most recently working through the Kokinshu anthology (archived here). Suggestions, corrections, and questions always welcome.

There's also original pomes in the journal archives.

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