Kyuden Shika

Murato walked through the garden with the borrowed umbrella. Usually he didn't mind getting his kimono soaked in the rain. It was just water after all. But he had a dinner to prepare for shortly and didn't need to add changing in addition to setting the meal up. But he also did not wish to sit through a play every day. He enjoyed them, but too much would be too much.

Having grown up on a mountainside, Hajime was rather taken with the way the rainwater interacted with the much more abundant vegetation here in the forest. The walk through the forest earlier in the day had been fun, but now was the time to set aside the sublime and enjoy the picturesque.

Of course, the Kitsu's presence was to be remarked upon. And the garden is much more enjoyable in company, is it not?

"Good evening, Kitsu-san," he said with a bow and polite smile, positioning his umbrella to protect his head. This did little to protect his hindquarters, but he wasn't about to make obvious mention of that just now. "This one is Kitsuki Hajime, court poet to Kitsuki Shunsuke. Enjoying the gardens?"

Meeting the Dragon with a bow, he responds, "Good evening to you as well. I am Kitsu Murato, bureaucrat in service at Shiro sano Ken Hayai. And the rain covered garden is a lovely diversion. Too many plays and I fear I'll grow bored of them."

Hajime nodded quickly. "Oh, hai. Very much so." He tilted his head. "I've only caught yesterday's, thus far, but I felt as though nature had something profound to say today. It seemed a shame to miss it." He looked out at the dripping flowers. "Simply lovely."

"I am not a poet at heart, even if I am not a stranger to it. So I am curious what you hear nature saying versus what I hear it saying?" Murato said with a curious look. "For me it exudes a sense of vibrancy shrouded in a muggy evening haze and a softer patter. Something hidden, just out of sight, but there to be found by anyone curious enough to look. All the while wrapping us in that same shroud we might seek to pierce."

"There's something poetic in that, Kitsu-sama. I think you sell yourself quite short."

Cool water falling
Drip-dribble on peonies--
Why am I amazed?

The sky has opened
She is feeding her children
And I tremble at her call.

Day 3, ME: Agenda Pushing through Poetry: Air/Composition | TN: 2 | Success: 1 / Opportunity: 1 / Strife: 1

Failure. But then, why should this be any different? Opportunity spent to eliminate strife.

He had expected maybe something more from the court poet of his lord, but Murato knew that he could not do better, and that he had put the Dragon on the spot. So he nodded politely in appreciation. Rather than critique the poetry itself, which he didn't feel he was qualified to do in the first place, he decided questions were the best route forward.

"And do you truly not know why you are amazed, or is that artistic license?" he asks with a polite smile.

Hajime was momentarily confused, but got to the root of the problem quickly enough. "Wh--I--Ah, the second half is the answer to the first half in a Mondo, so it sort of forces a rhetorical question." He raised a shoulder in a half-shrug. "It's a very prescriptive form, in that way. Not in terms of poetics, though. As many or as few lines as you need. I like to think of it as asking the question the listener would have asked, if they knew what the poet was feeling. Or cared."

"Well, there you go," he said with a chuckle. "Clearly not a poet if I didn't even realize that. And I had thought they taught me to be more cultured in the dojo. Clearly I have some studying to do."

"But the spirit is there, and that's the main thing." Hajime smiled. "And truly, the distance between the poet and the bureaucrat is not as great as some would have you believe. We both write in our lord's service, after all. But in my case, what my lord wishes to appear on the page is often far more important than any other consideration."

He turned his head to look at the Kitsu. "I suppose your line of writing might sometimes be more faithful to the senses than mine, though. What sort of bureaucracy do you do, Kitsu-sama?"