Suguwara no Michizane wrote
Kono tabi
Nusa mo toriaezu
Tamukeyama
Momiji no nishiki
Kami no mani mani
This poem can be found in the Hyakuninisshu
This person on this journey or at this time tabi has a double meaning
offerings for the moment hopefully sufficient implied
nusa is a staff with strips of paper or silk attached but can also mean strips of silk or coins
Tamukeyama is a temple at Nara and the name tamuke means (hall of ) offering
maple branch probably of brocade
gods (i am ) at mercy of or the gods may take consequent action or not
this may be indirect criticism of his treatment by the Imperial Court
implying all he could afford is a maple branch and his fate and career needed the mercy of the gods?
I wish I could be typing Nara as a location tag. Right about now one of those really expensive ryokan with a hot bath would be good for my right arm which is broken.
A Gwailo's View of Han Zi ! A Blog featuring my experiments with Han Zi and digital typographic art and articles on Chinese derived characters. Also some articles on Chinese characters in general and their use of multiple Asian languages.
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