濡れてほす山路の菊の露の間に
いつか千歳を我はへにけむ
いつか千歳を我はへにけむ
- Roma-ji
-
Nurete hosu yamaji no kiku no tsuyu no ma ni
itsu ka chitose o ware wa henikemu - English Translation
-
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?