One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each Read online

  Conclusion

  One of the great strengths of classical Japanese waka poetry is that it can express deep emotion and refinement of sensibility in images of profound simplicity, and the One Hundred Poets is an exemplary work in this regard. Its poems contain rich and original images that still seem fresh a thousand years later. The collection shows how Teika defined himself in relation to the poetic tradition that he both inherited and promulgated. According to Emperor Gotoba, Teika was dictatorial in all matters relating to poetry and editing, but eight hundred years of history have consistently proved his judgements right.

  Although it is impossible to state unequivocally the work’s overarching editorial principles, this should not become a hindrance to the appreciation of the individual poems. The One Hundred Poets remains first and foremost a collection of one hundred great poems and so it should be regarded. The primary aim in this book is to provide an enjoyable and poetic translation, and I hope that readers will find in these pages something of the depth and beauty of the original magical collection, which is notable for the great subtlety and allusiveness of the poems, their incomparable visual imagery and the profound emotion that they express.

  Haiku is widely known in the West, but it originally developed from waka. Haiku, a relatively recent word, was originally known as hokku and was the opening stanza in Japanese linked verse, renga. Haiku came into being when the opening stanza came to exist independently from the rest of the linked verse. Formally, it is the equivalent of the upper strophe of waka, namely having seventeen syllables of 5-7-5. Though haiku developed in a completely different way to waka, a study of Japanese waka can help readers in understanding more about haiku and how to write it. When Shunzei noted, ‘All who come to our land study this poetry; all who live in our land compose it’, he was speaking of waka not haiku.6 Thus, if one wants to understand the heart of the Japanese it could be argued that it is found not only in haiku, but also − or even more − in waka.

  Towards the end of working on this translation, I accompanied the translator and scholar Eileen Kato on a pilgrimage to Kyoto to visit places connected with One Hundred Poets. We visited the ruins of the legendary Shiguretei in Nisonin, where Teika is said to have completed his editing of the collection in the little hut at the foot of Mount Ogura, which gave the work the name by which it is commonly known in Japan, the Ogura hyakunin isshu. We also visited the site of what is held to be the grave of Teika in Shokukuji. He lies alongside two other great figures, the Muromachi patron of the arts Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436–90) and the artist Ito Jakuchu (1716–1800). We placed a small bunch of white chrysanthemums on the grave in honour of Teika’s love of the colour white. At the time, I remember thinking of the extraordinary power of literature. More than six centuries after the death of Teika, two people from the other side of the world more than six thousand miles away were paying homage to this outstanding poet and editor. Great literature knows no barriers in time or distance. I hope the readers of this translation will gain a sense of the power and beauty of these poems and even be moved to return to the originals. And, as I happily discovered myself, I can end with one recommendation: if you want to understand the Japanese, read the One Hundred Poets.

  NOTES

  1. The card game consists of two hundred cards divided into two sets, one with the complete poems, which are called the yomifuda (cards to be read out), and one with only the last lines of the poems, the torifuda (cards to grab), which are placed face up on the card table. When the yomifuda are read out, the players have to find the torifuda with the last lines of the relevant poems as quickly as possible and snap them up. The person with the most cards at the end is the winner. The game has been played since the Edo period, and is still played every New Year by around a million people in Japan. At the time of writing, I am also creating the world’s first English-language version of the card game, with the tentative title of Whack a Waka. Indeed, one of the motivations behind the creation of the new translation of the poems – with five lines each – was to make a version suitable for the card game.

  2. Teika quoted this himself in his revised Shūigūsō (Dull Musings of a Chamberlain; written after 1216): ‘Everyone said I wrote “faddish, groundless Zen-nonsense poems” and abandoned me.’

  3. Known as ‘Shunzei’s Daughter’, she was in fact Shunzei’s granddaughter and therefore Teika’s niece.

  4. Konishi Jin’ichi, ‘Association and Progression: Principles of Integration in Anthologies and Sequences of Japanese Court Poetry, A.D. 900–1350’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 21 (December 1958), pp. 67–127.

  5. The table here is just to give a general idea of the main poetic categories and their distribution throughout the collection. Precise categorization of the poems is a matter of debate. For example, the number of love poems varies depending on whether we count them as they were originally categorized or whether we simply judge them to be love poems from a Western point of view. And some poems can belong to two categories simultaneously, such as poem 91, which, as the commentary to it indicates, was initially regarded as belonging to autumn, but which may also be counted as a love poem.

  6. Shunzei, Korai fūteishō (1197–1201), a treatise on poetry writing and the history of waka. Adapted here from Eileen Kato (trans.), ‘Pilgrimage to Dazaifu: Sōgi’s Tsukushi no Michi no Ki’, Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 34, no. 3 (Autumn 1979), pp. 333–67, at p. 364.

  1. Emperor Tenji

  In this makeshift hut

  in the autumn field

  gaps in the thatch

  let dewdrops in,

  moistening my sleeves.

  2. Empress Jito

  Spring has passed,

  and the white robes of summer

  are being aired

  on fragrant Mount Kagu –

  beloved of the gods.

  3. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

  The

  long

  tail

  of

  the

  copper

  pheasant

  trails,

  drags

  on

  and

  on

  like

  this

  long

  night

  alone

  in

  the

  lonely

  mountains,

  longing

  for

  my

  love.

  4. Yamabe no Akahito

  Coming out on the Bay of Tago,

  there before me,

  Mount Fuji –

  snow still falling on her peak,

  a splendid cloak of white.

  5. Sarumaru Taifu

  In the deep mountains

  making a path

  through the fallen leaves,

  the plaintive belling of the stag –

  how forlorn the autumn feels.

  6. Otomo no Yakamochi

  How the night deepens.

  A ribbon of the whitest frost

  is stretched across

  the bridge of magpie wings

  the lovers will cross.

  7. Abe no Nakamaro

  I gaze up at the sky and wonder:

  is that the same moon

  that shone over Mount Mikasa

  at Kasuga

  all those years ago?

  8. Priest Kisen

  I live alone in a simple hut

  south-east of the capital,

  but people speak of me as one

  who fled the sorrows of the world

  only to end up on the Hill of Sorrow.

  9. Ono no Komachi

  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.

  10. Semimaru

  So this is the place!

  Crowds,

  coming

  going

  meeting

  parting,<
br />
  those known,

  unknown –

  the Gate of Meeting Hill.

  11. Ono no Takamura

  Fishing boats upon the sea,

  tell whoever asks

  that I have sailed away,

  out past countless islets

  to the vast ocean beyond.

  12. Archbishop Henjo

  Breezes of Heaven, blow closed

  the pathway through the clouds

  to keep a little longer

  these heavenly dancers

  from returning home.

  13. Retired Emperor Yozei

  Just as the Minano River

  surges from the peak

  of Mount Tsukuba,

  so my love cascades

  to make deep pools.

  14. Minamoto no Toru

  My heart’s as tangled

  as the wild fern patterns

  of Michinoku’s Shinobu cloth.

  Since it is not my fault,

  whom should I blame for this?

  15. Emperor Koko

  For you,

  I came out to the fields

  to pick the first spring greens.

  All the while, on my sleeves

  a light snow falling.

  16. Ariwara no Yukihira

  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.

  17. Ariwara no Narihira

  Such beauty unheard of

  even in the age of the raging gods –

  the Tatsuta River

  tie-dyeing its waters

  in autumnal colours.

  18. Fujiwara no Toshiyuki

  Unlike the waves that approach

  the shores of Sumiyoshi Bay,

  why do you avoid the eyes of others,

  refusing to approach me –

  even on the path of dreams?

  19. Lady Ise

  Are you saying, for even a moment

  short as the space

  between the nodes on a reed

  from Naniwa Inlet,

  we should never meet again?

  20. Prince Motoyoshi

  I’m so desperate, it’s all the same.

  Like the channel markers of Naniwa

  whose name means ‘self-sacrifice’,

  let me give up my life

  to see you once again.

  21. Priest Sosei

  As you said, ‘I’m coming right away,’

  I waited for you

  through the long autumn night,

  but only the moon greeted me

  at the cold light of dawn.

  22. Fun’ya no Yasuhide

  In autumn the wind has only to blow

  for leaves and grasses to perish.

  That must be why the characters

  ‘mountain’ and ‘wind’

  together mean ‘gale’.

  23. Oe no Chisato

  Thoughts of a thousand things

  fill me with melancholy

  as I gaze upon the moon,

  but autumn’s dejection

  comes not to me alone.

  24. Sugawara no Michizane

  On this journey

  I have no streamers to offer up.

  Instead, dear gods, if it pleases you,

  may you take this maple brocade

  of Mount Tamuke’s colours.

  25. Fujiwara no Sadakata

  If the ‘sleep-together vine’

  that grows on Meeting Hill

  is true to its name,

  I will entwine you in my arms,

  unknown to anyone.

  26. Fujiwara no Tadahira

  Dear Maples of Mount Ogura,

  if you have a heart,

  please wait for another visit

  so that His Majesty may enjoy

  your lovely autumn colours.

  27. Fujiwara no Kanesuke

  When did you first spring into view?

  Like the Field of Jars

  divided by the River of Springs,

  I am split in two – so deeply flows

  the river of my love for you.

  28. Minamoto no Muneyuki

  In my mountain abode

  it is winter

  that feels loneliest –

  both grasses and visitors

  dry up.

  29. Oshikochi no Mitsune

  To pluck a stem

  I shall have to guess,

  for I cannot tell apart

  white chrysanthemums

  from the first frost.

  30. Mibu no Tadamine

  How cold the face

  of the morning moon!

  Since we parted

  nothing is so miserable

  as the approaching dawn.

  31. Sakanoue no Korenori

  Beloved Yoshino –

  I was sure you were bathed

  in the moonlight of dawn,

  but it’s a soft falling of snow

  that mantles you in white.

  32. Harumichi no Tsuraki

  The weir that the wind

  has flung across

  the mountain brook

  is made of autumn’s

  richly coloured leaves.

  33. Ki no Tomonori

  Cherry Blossoms,

  on this calm, lambent

  day of spring,

  why do you scatter

  with such unquiet hearts?

  34. Fujiwara no Okikaze

  Of those I loved, none are left.

  Only the aged pine

  of Takasago

  has my years, but, alas,

  he is not an old friend of mine.

  35. Ki no Tsurayuki

  As the human heart’s so fickle

  your feelings may have changed,

  but at least in my old home

  the plum blossoms bloom as always

  with a fragrance of the past.

  36. Kiyohara no Fukayabu

  On this summer night,

  when twilight has so quickly

  become the dawn,

  where is the moon at rest

  among the clouds?

  37. Fun’ya no Asayasu

  When the wind gusts

  over the autumn fields,

  white dewdrops

  lie strewn about

  like scattered pearls.

  38. Ukon

  Though you have forgotten me,

  I do not worry about myself,

  but how I fear for you,

  as you swore before the gods

  of your undying love.

  39. Minamoto no Hitoshi

  I try to conceal my feelings,

  but they are too much to bear –

  like reeds hidden in the low bamboo

  of this desolate plain.

  Why do I love you so?

  40. Taira no Kanemori

  Though I try to keep it secret,

  my deep love shows

  in the blush on my face.

  Others keep asking me –

  ‘Who are you thinking of?’

  41. Mibu no Tadami

  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.

  42. Kiyohara no Motosuke

  Wringing tears from our sleeves,

  did we not pledge never to part,

  not even if the waves engulfed

  the Mount of Forever-Green Pines –

  what caused such a change of heart?

  43. Fujiwara no Atsutada

  When I compare my heart

  from before we met

  to after we made love,

  I know I had not yet grasped

  the pain of loving you.

  44. Fujiwara no Asatada

  If we had never met,

  I woul
d not so much resent

  your being cold to me

  or how I’ve come to hate myself

  because I love you so.

  45. Fujiwara no Koremasa

  ‘I feel so sorry for you.’

  No one comes to mind

  who would say that to me,

  so I will surely die alone

  of a broken heart.

  46. Sone no Yoshitada

  Crossing the Bay of Yura

  the boatman loses the rudder.

  The boat is adrift,

  not knowing where it goes.

  Is the course of love like this?

  47. Priest Egyō

  How lonely this villa

  has become, overgrown

  with vines and weeds.

  No one visits me –

  only autumn comes.

  48. Minamoto no Shigeyuki

  Blown by the fierce winds,