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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Bliss
I read and enjoyed the poems, but did not read the entire commentary.
reflective
fast-paced
Soon, we will not be
in this world together
And all will be a memory:
Now, for just a moment,
How I wish to meet.
— Izumi Shikibu, #56
Better than Neruda, I tell you.
One hundred people, one poem each. That's the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, a Japanese anthology compiled by Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241), a renowned poet from Ogura, Kyoto. He is considered one of the masters of waka, a type of poetry which consists of five lines with a total of 31 syllables that now is commonly known as tanka.
Among the ones I highlighted there are poems by Sarumaru no Dayu (#5), Ono no Komachi (#9), Fujiwara no Kanesuke (#27), Ki no Tsurayuki (#35), Gyōson (#66), Lady Suō no Naishi (#67) and Retired Emperor Sutoku (#79).
Each English version is followed by the original text in Japanese and romaji and a literal translation. Some of them include long chains of possible words, so several poems can be read in so many ways and they all work - a masterful demonstration of wordplay. Additionally, some of them come with a brief explanation of the historical context in which they were written or something about the personal life of the poet.
#33
by Ki no Tomonori (c. 850 – c. 904)
Eternal moon
And fading light-
This spring day,
A restless heart
And scattered blossoms.
*
久方の
光のどけき
春の日に
しづ心なく
花のちるらむ
*
Hisakata no
Hikari nodokeki
Haru no hi ni
Shizu-gokoro naku
Hana no chiruran
This poem gives a sense of long-lasting happiness ("the eternal moon") combined with a worry that it is ending ("losing light", "restless heart", "scattered [cherry] blossoms"). Cherry blossoms are known for their vivid beauty, but they only bloom for a couple weeks a year before scattering and disappearing...
A recurring, useless and yet sometimes inevitable way to experience a brief moment of happiness, isn't it? I love it for that.
As it usually happens with Japanese poetry, nature and human emotions are vividly entangled, developing strong visual descriptions. A thousand words - often difficult to utter - are replaced by one single and effective image. An endless night, a pale moon, autumn leaves, a broken brook, scattered cherry blossoms.
My personal favorite:
#83
by Fujiwara no Toshinari (1114-1204)
Society's midst
A tearful path,
Desiring retreat
To mountain depths–
But there too, a deer cries.
*
世の中よ
道こそなけれ
思ひ入る
山のおくにも
鹿ぞ鳴くなる
*
Yo no naka yo
Michi koso nakere
Omoi iru
Yama no oku ni mo
Shika zo naku naru
July 19-20, 18
* Photo / CC
** Also on my blog.
Some very beautiful poems in this collection, with a decent commentary with alternative translations at the end which I loved. I think some of the poems could have been elaborated on slightly more, and as someone who doesn't know much about Japanese history the historical context for each poem was lacking a little.
I definitely found pieces I truly loved.
I definitely found pieces I truly loved.
This book, being a collection I have read over and over again since my childhood, has inevitably become part of my own poetry. I have unconsciously absorbed the forlorn, nature-filled, heartbroken style of these poets in a way that I will never be able to rid myself of them.
Well, I mean, I guess it's good. But I remain deeply and naively untouched by poetry.
The translation itself is rather dry, although the commentary is lovely.
Short but sweet! I never knew waka was the precursor of haiku until I read this collection. Leaving some of my favorites here:
poem 41
I had hoped to keep secret
feelings that had begun to stir
within my heart,
but already rumours are rife
that I am in love with you.
poem 9
I have loved in vain
and now my beauty fades
like these cherry blossoms
paling in the long rains of spring
that I gaze upon alone.
poem 16
Though I may leave
for Mount Inaba,
whose peak is covered with pines,
if I hear that you pine for me,
I will come straight home to you.
poem 54
You promise you'll never forget,
but to the end of time
is too long to ask.
So let me die today.
still loved by you.
poem 99
Though it is futile to ponder
the ways of the world,
I am lost in desolate musing
I have loved some and hated others,
even hated the ones I love.
poem 41
I had hoped to keep secret
feelings that had begun to stir
within my heart,
but already rumours are rife
that I am in love with you.
poem 9
I have loved in vain
and now my beauty fades
like these cherry blossoms
paling in the long rains of spring
that I gaze upon alone.
poem 16
Though I may leave
for Mount Inaba,
whose peak is covered with pines,
if I hear that you pine for me,
I will come straight home to you.
poem 54
You promise you'll never forget,
but to the end of time
is too long to ask.
So let me die today.
still loved by you.
poem 99
Though it is futile to ponder
the ways of the world,
I am lost in desolate musing
I have loved some and hated others,
even hated the ones I love.
The back of this elegant little booklet says: Around 1235, Japanese poet and scholar Fujiwara no Teika compiled for his son's father-in-law a collection of 100 poems by 100 poets.
Within its chronological summary of six centuries of Japanese literature, Teika arranged a poetic conversation that ebbs and flows through a variety of subjects and styles. The collection became the exemplar of the genre--a mini-manual of classical poetry, taught in the standard school curriculum and used in a memory card game still played during New Year's.
Larry Hammer, the translator, not only gives alternate meanings for phrases, but he furnishes clues to meanings otherwise hidden to the Westerner ignorant of the subtleties of the various styles through these six centuries of Japanese history.
Here's one that I liked:
80. Empress Haiken's Horikawa
Whether his feelings
will also last, I don't know,
and my black hair is
disordered as, this morning,
my thoughts certainly are.
The image of the lover with long, ruffled hair is so evocative and romantic! About it, Hammer says, An attendant of the imperial court . . .the origin of the use-name Horikawa ("moat-river") is uknown, but it seems unrelated to the earlier emperor of that name. Again, the "mono" thought about is clearly the other person.
How about this one?
92. Sanuki
My sleeve is like
a rock in the open sea
unseen at low tide,
for no one knows about it
and so it never dries out.
That's evocative enough, right there--and then Hammer furnishes the hidden clues: A lady-in-waiting to retired emperor Nijo and later to a consort of Go-Toba, her use-name is from Sanuki Province (now Kagawa Prefecture) but her connection to it is obscure.
Written on "love compared to a stone." The original can be read as that it's either people in general or a particular person who does not know her sleeves are wet. Sleeves were normally all that a modest court lady showed of herself in public, so the implication is she's hiding hers to avoid revealing they're damp from crying over a broken heart, keeping them from drying.
The poems do ebb and flow, furnishing an elliptical, or elusive, conversation, if one reads them in order. But I found equal pleasure in opening the book anywhere, and picking one to read and think about.
Within its chronological summary of six centuries of Japanese literature, Teika arranged a poetic conversation that ebbs and flows through a variety of subjects and styles. The collection became the exemplar of the genre--a mini-manual of classical poetry, taught in the standard school curriculum and used in a memory card game still played during New Year's.
Larry Hammer, the translator, not only gives alternate meanings for phrases, but he furnishes clues to meanings otherwise hidden to the Westerner ignorant of the subtleties of the various styles through these six centuries of Japanese history.
Here's one that I liked:
80. Empress Haiken's Horikawa
Whether his feelings
will also last, I don't know,
and my black hair is
disordered as, this morning,
my thoughts certainly are.
The image of the lover with long, ruffled hair is so evocative and romantic! About it, Hammer says, An attendant of the imperial court . . .the origin of the use-name Horikawa ("moat-river") is uknown, but it seems unrelated to the earlier emperor of that name. Again, the "mono" thought about is clearly the other person.
How about this one?
92. Sanuki
My sleeve is like
a rock in the open sea
unseen at low tide,
for no one knows about it
and so it never dries out.
That's evocative enough, right there--and then Hammer furnishes the hidden clues: A lady-in-waiting to retired emperor Nijo and later to a consort of Go-Toba, her use-name is from Sanuki Province (now Kagawa Prefecture) but her connection to it is obscure.
Written on "love compared to a stone." The original can be read as that it's either people in general or a particular person who does not know her sleeves are wet. Sleeves were normally all that a modest court lady showed of herself in public, so the implication is she's hiding hers to avoid revealing they're damp from crying over a broken heart, keeping them from drying.
The poems do ebb and flow, furnishing an elliptical, or elusive, conversation, if one reads them in order. But I found equal pleasure in opening the book anywhere, and picking one to read and think about.