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forkedtongues2011-10-07 07:31 am
lnhammer) wrote in forkedtongues2011-10-07 07:31 am
Kokinshû III:156
夏の夜のふすかとすれば郭公なくひとこゑにあくるしののめ
natsu no yo no
fusu ka to soreba
hototogisu
naku hitokoe ni
akuru shinonome
While I consider
possibly going to bed
of a summer night --
with a single cuckoo's voice,
the first breaking light of dawn.
By Ki no Tsurayuki.
Written for (or at least presented at) a poetry contest held in 893. I am intrigued by how in the first line "night" (yo) is followed by a genitive/locative case-marker instead of the expected topic-marking particle, which has the effect of de-emphasizing the time -- and so plays into the speaker's losing track of it. I shifted that image down to the third line to mimic that de-emphasis.
natsu no yo no
fusu ka to soreba
hototogisu
naku hitokoe ni
akuru shinonome
While I consider
possibly going to bed
of a summer night --
with a single cuckoo's voice,
the first breaking light of dawn.
By Ki no Tsurayuki.
Written for (or at least presented at) a poetry contest held in 893. I am intrigued by how in the first line "night" (yo) is followed by a genitive/locative case-marker instead of the expected topic-marking particle, which has the effect of de-emphasizing the time -- and so plays into the speaker's losing track of it. I shifted that image down to the third line to mimic that de-emphasis.