"I wish you'd gather / these colored leaves in your sleeves / and carry them out"

[larryhammer]

I am more pleased than I expected to find there's a Kokinshu poem about going mushroom-gathering with one's father. Well, it's really about autumn leaves, the dying year(s), and missed opportunities. And other symbolic things, I'm sure. But really -- how many classical literatures have poems about hunting 'shrooms with Dad? Fewer than you might hope.

Bonus link: a portrait, as imagined a thousand later, of Ono no Komachi as an old woman. I like this one a lot -- that's the face of a woman who has lived a lot and made her peace with it all. (Note that's a gravestone she's sitting on.)

---L.

Comments

[galeni.livejournal.com]

I love how the parasol, too, is time-ravaged.

Thank you.

[larryhammer]

I think it may be a hat? Not sure. But yes, that's one of the details that struck me as well.

---L.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I thought it was a parasol too, but looking closer I think it is a hat.

[larryhammer]

I'm pretty sure the straw rope tied below her throat ties the hat under the chin.

---L.