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.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

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.

April 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
678910 1112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   

Style Credit

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios
Page generated Tuesday, 5 May 2026 14:15

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags