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- Saga no Haru -

嵯峨の春

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This is a Jiuta piece in the Tegotomono style from the Ikuta Ryū school . This piece was composed for koto by Urazaki Kengyo . This piece was composed for shamisen by Matsūra Kengyo .

Poem (translated by Tedford, John)
Just as I saw it last year
in the middle of March:
the springtime in Saga.

The mountain cherry
of Arashi-yama,
its color and fragrance unchanging,
is like a wedding banquet of. blossoms.
The flowers have scattered
but petals still linger in my heart

and disturb my thoughts.
And again this spring
they come back [to brighten up]
my life of misery.

I set forth to fetch
water from the River Oi

I wish I were a flowered raft
floating downstream and escaping;

a flower to be taken in hand
and redeemed from bondage.

I have none to blame but myself,
that I wander hopelessly.

II I am to be redeemed,
it will be only through the
Buddha's mercy [which commands]
"Journey one by one
to the temples of Saga."

The waterwheel
which blocks the river at Risen-ji
spins at the mercy of the waves.

The branches of the river willow
are at the mercy of the rushing water.
The ruffled sparrow
is at the mercy of the
[wind in the] bamboo.
The bull in Kyoto
is at the mercy of the ox-cart [driver]
The hand-mill for tea
is at the mercy of its crooked handle.

And I am at the mercy,
at the mercy of my rampant passion.
This precious jewel of life
rushes to its end
on a river of suffering love.

My bed has become a deep abyss
of midnight trysts and partings.


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