Kokinshu Book IIb: Spring 2 (101-134)

Continued from previous scroll.



( Kokinshu II:101-134 )

And that really is the last of spring. Book 3 covers all of summer, which season is apparently all about the cuckoo. Literally.

But that's for another day.

(Index for this series)

---L.

Kokinshu Book IIa: Spring 2 (69-100)

Continuing on from book 1 of the Kokinshu, we get more cherry blossoms. Oh, and other flowers of spring. Through to the end of spring, in fact. All of them quite pretty, though they spend more time fading and scattering than actually blooming. It's the pathos of the thing.

Though I started these translations this January, the bulk were done May-August 2011. As with Book I, they were all initially posted in my poetry journal (a.k.a. prettygoodpoet) with many revised since -- these are the latest-and-greatest versions. My reference materials are the same as for book 1, with the addition of an Ôbunsha classical language dictionary that I don't know how I got along without. Well, I do -- all those other references, but I've never been more thankful for teeny-tiny 5-point type (with 2-point furigana).

Because I haven't actually mentioned this: my translations mimic the original form of 31 syllables in lines* of 5-7-5-7-7. This syllable count was not strict, however: hypermetic lines with an extra syllable were not uncommon -- often but not always where adjacent vowels can be elided together. Sometimes, this was done to effect: a long last line gives it a slight emphasis, much as in English verse. I've taken advantage of this laxity to allow myself the occasional line that's a syllable short or, more rarely, long -- never more than one a poem. (Only once have I managed to reproduce the same long line, though.) I've tried to avoid padding the language solely to fill out the form, for that's neither good poetry or good translation -- roundabout phrasings generally correspond to something of the original, be it tone or syntax or padded language. Translations that streamline as much as possible can be unfaithful.

* As in ancient Greece, in practice poems were written as a single string, broken as space enforced. However, comma, orthography is not structure and the syllable groups are lines by any reasonable definition. Despite this, much ink has been spilled across many pages arguing the matter.

But without further ado, more culturally dominant images below the fold. As always, comments, critiques, and corrections are welcome. Encouraged, even.

( Kokinshu II:69-100 )

Continued on another scroll because LJ thinks spring goes on way too long.

(Index for this series)

---L.