Dokdo Romance on Flickr. 水霧相 奥津小嶋尓 風乎疾見 船縁金都 心者念杼 水霧らふ沖つ小島に風をいたみ舟寄せかねつ心は思へど minagirapu/oki tu kosima
Dokdo Romance on Flickr. 水霧相 奥津小嶋尓 風乎疾見 船縁金都 心者念杼 水霧らふ沖つ小島に風をいたみ舟寄せかねつ心は思へど minagirapu/oki tu kosima ni/kaze wo itami/pune yosekanetu/ kokoro pa omopedo Mist settles over the waters in the offing, and so held back by the wind, to the small island the boat cannot draw near; although it very much wishes to do so. (Man’yoshu 7-1401, Anonymous) This is an old photo from the summer of 2010, taken in Pusan; I found it an amusing companion to this poem as Evelyn and I had decided that the tiny island was Dokdo (a disputed island between Korea and Japan), although of course it is not the actual one, but “Dokdo” literally means “solitary island,” so we thought it an appropriate name for this tiny one. Given the way I am gazing longingly at this poor lonely island, I decided it worked well with this poem. The poem is generally read symbolically, i.e. that the “small island” is a lover to whom one cannot draw near due to being obstructed (by the “wind”) and the view of whom is obscured (by the “mist” settling over the water). The photo also has a boat barely visible, which is interesting. The poem is lamenting the inability to meet one’s lover due to some sort of obstacle, and declares the desire to meet, but contains a hint of desperation that the obstacles cannot be overcome; although the desire is there, “wind” and “mist” are natural phenomena over which man has no control. These therefore might understood symbolically as obstacles outside of one’s control, such as social protocol/standards/class divisions or even family, rumors, etc. Likewise, I could never approach that island, not only because of the mist and the wind, but because I am deathly afraid of fish and will not go in the ocean. -- source link
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