WHITE WAKA ONE

#white #waka #tanka #hyakuninisshu

The most common color adjective in the famous #HyakuninIsshu anthology is white. Yes I went and counted. The next most common are red and black.

I counted 7 using shiro or shira or shirotae.

There  are a couple of more that use phrases and verbs that could be translated as white or whiten.

Poem 2 about seeing a mountain still snow capped  at the beginning of summer

shiro tae no white sleeves / robes

Poem 4 being seeing snow on Fuji also uses shirotae

Poem 6 refers to white frost shiro ki

Poem 29 compares and links heavy frost to whiteness and white chrysantheums shiragiku

Poem 31 compares light reflecting off a heavy fall of white snow to moonlight

yoshino no sato ni fureru shira yuki

Poem 37 shira tsuyu white dewdrops compared to jewels

Poem 76 compares clouds and waves

kumoi ni magoo okitsu shira nami

I'll be translating a few or all of these over the next few weeks !