Xavid (kihou) wrote,
Xavid
kihou
Spent some time today at Harvard's Yenching library. Among other discoveries, I found that a documented use of Oranda/阿蘭陀 (i.e., Holland) spelled with 蘭/ran/orchid that my mom wants to cant with is in the following poem (a tanka), published in a collection in 1675.

何国迄
これはつつくそ
霧の海
阿蘭陀よりも
かよふ秋風

As far as what country
does this continue?
The sea of mist.
Even from Holland
autumn winds go and return.

(The translation's a best guess, because I don't actually know classical Japanese. Mainly, I don't know what つつくそ is really supposed to be.) Rather marginal, but seems plausible that they'd have used the same spelling 75 years earlier.
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