One of my favorite poems of the Hyakunin Isshu anthology is also one of the first:
| Japanese | Romanization | Translation |
| 春過ぎて | Haru sugite | Spring has passed, and |
| 夏来にけらし | natsu ki ni kerashi | summer has arrived, it seems |
| 白妙の | shiro tae no | Heavenly Mount Kagu |
| 衣ほすてふ | koromo hosu chō | where, it is said, they dry robes |
| 天の香具山 | Ama no Kaguyama | of the whitest mulberry! |
According to Professor Mostow, this poem in general causes a lot of headaches for commentators and translators over generations because of the confusing relation between certain lines. I love it because it shows a prime example of using “pillow words” or makura-kotoba in Japanese waka poetry, which are special, stock phrases. They also don’t really translate into English. However for those familiar with waka poetry, they evoke powerful imagery and many waka poems in antiquity use them. In this poem, the pillow word is the phrase shirotae 白妙, which evokes the images of pristine, white mulberry cloth (or paper).
More on the poem’s backstory, Mount Kagu and the author can be found here.
I hope you all get a chance to enjoy the summer a bit, even in trying times.
Gleanings in Buddha-Fields 