Tuesday 27 March 2012

Thousand-year-old Catch-22


"Cross it, and trouble lies ahead.
Do not cross, and still you're trouble-bound.
Truly a troublous place
Is the Ford of Shikasuga."


Attributed to Lady Nakatsukasa (912?-991?)


Found in As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams, sort of diary/notebook/travelogue written by an anonymous Japanese woman in the 11th Century, translated by Ivan Morris, note 42, p 118 (Penguin Classics, 1975)


PS: I know I put this poem under the Tanka section, but really I can't come up with the 'Waka' tag just for this one...especially since waka is the former name for tanka.

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