furusato to / narinishi nara no / miyako ni mo / iro wa kawarazu / hana wa sakikeri*

Posting this here only because I'm rather fond of it.

Kokinshu #111. Author and topic unknown.
koma namete iza mi ni yukamu furusato wa yuki to nomi koso hana wa chirurame	Our steeds are lined up, so come now, let's go and see --     in the old village, flowers must be scattering like nothing so much as snow.

The image of horsemen in period costumes cantering through a cinematic whirl of cherry petals? -- that, I find rather romantic. At least, I'm pretty sure the generic flowers are supposed to be sakura. If they aren't, they ought to be. And likewise, although koma, now an old-fashioned synonym for uma ("horse"), seems to have been at the time in the standard rather than elevated register, I still want render it as "steed."

Submitting to that romanticism is perhaps not the best translation practice. But in this one thing, at least, I can recognize my biases, however much I may fall down ignorant in others.


* KKS #90: "Even in Nara, / the capital that became / an old village, / the colors aren't changing: / the flowers are still blooming."

---L.