drenched, I dry my robes
on a mountain path, among
chrysanthemums—
within the space of this dew,
when did I pass a thousand years?

Meaning

While my clothes, soaked on a mountain path, dry among the dew of chrysanthemums, when was it that I came to pass a thousand years?

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems (Part Two)

A poem composed on a suhama depicting a figure entering a palace where immortals dwell, gathering chrysanthemums.

It plays on “dew of chrysanthemums,” from a Chinese tale in which the dew grants immortality, and “the space of dew,” meaning a very brief time. Assuming the voice of one who has wandered into an immortal realm, the poem expresses the sense that, within a fleeting moment, a thousand years have passed.

Suhama refers to a miniature scenic representation, like a diorama.

Author

Sosei Hoshi

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

when first I planted it, how I longed to see it bloom— this chrysanthemum; yet did I ever think I would meet it in autumn as it fades away?
raised by autumn winds upon the shore of Fukiage, stand these white chrysanthemums— are they flowers, or could they be the waves that gather on the shore?
gazing on the flowers, while I wait for one to come— white as fine cloth sleeves, so I thought them and mistook what I saw before my eyes
thinking it but one, this chrysanthemum I saw— in Ōsawa pond, even on the pond’s deep floor, who could have planted it so?

drenched, I dry my robes on a mountain path, among chrysanthemums— within the space of this dew, when did I pass a thousand years?

drenched, I dry my robes
on a mountain path, among
chrysanthemums—
within the space of this dew,
when did I pass a thousand years?