[whiteperil] Sean: Summer

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Posted by Sean:
Summer
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1183896367.shtml


   It's been a pretty rainless rainy season so far. The weather's
   lovely--not always sunny, but mild and warm. I've been trying to force
   myself not to be outdoors too much too soon, without much success. (I
   burn very easily.) Since it's officially early summer, and I haven't
   posted about poetry for, like, ever, here's yet another from the
   Princess Shokushi:

     声ã¯ãã¦é²è·¯ã«ããã¶éå¬æ¶ãããã宵ã®æé¨
     å¼åå親ç
     koe ha shite / kumodji ni musebu / hototogisu / namida ya sosoku /
     yoi no murasame
     Shokushi-Naishinno
     Your voice, I can hear--
     as you cut a sobbing path
     through clouds, O cuckoo,
     are your tears pouring down, too?
     A burst of rain at twilight
     --The Princess Shokushi

   Imagining that the fleeting rainshower is caused by the equally
   fleeting flight of the cuckoo overhead, the princess wonders whether
   its crying voice (which she can hear) is accompanied by falling tears
   (which she can't see).