Kokinshu #116

[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.

Comments

[movingfinger]

Yes, up your alley, possibly even on your back doorstep.

Guardian review here.

[lnhammer]

Saw that (it comes up high in the google results).

Angelica's rescue *is* one of the vivid scenes that stands out in memory.

---L.