001.1-188 on Flickr. くらべこしふりわけ髪も肩すぎぬ君ならずしてたれか揚ぐべき kurabekoshi/furiwakegami mo/kata suginu/kimi naraz

001.1-188 on Flickr.

くらべこしふりわけ髪も肩すぎぬ君ならずしてたれか揚ぐべき
kurabekoshi/furiwakegami mo/kata suginu/kimi narazu site/tare ka agu beki

The parted hair of my youth that I had compared to yours now passes my shoulders; if not you, who else might there be who could put it up for me?

This is from Ise 23 and my deciding to blog it is inspired by my reading of Higuchi Ichiyo’s Takekurabe. The Ise story features two childhood friends who are separated when they reach a certain age, but who are determined to marry and eventually convince their parents. Now my husband and I certainly weren’t childhood friends, unfortunately, but I decided to include this photo because the act of “putting up” one’s hair is a symbolic one indicating the marriage bond, and here we have my husband helping to put up my hair for the Korean component of our wedding ceremony. But I simply love this poem, especially the final two ku - if not you, who else could there be who would put up my hair? In other words, it has to be you. The sounds here are just lovely too - gotta love all the k’s.