#waka poetry

[gleaningsinbuddhafields]

Names in the Hyakunin Isshu

Hello readers, If you’ve been following this blog for a while, and gotten to know some of the authors of the Hyakunin Isshu, then you may have noticed some patterns with the names of the authors. The authors are rarely listed by their birth name, and instead are listed under a sobriquet, or just their official title in the Imperial Court. Why was this done? My book, the Hyakunin Isshu…

[hisakata-no-amanogaha]

百人一首, poem 3: 柿本人麿

Day 3 of this little challenge! Today's poem is by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本人麿), from the same text, same manuscript, same transcription conventions.

阿し飛起農やま鳥[とり]の尾[を]のし多里を能 な可な可し夜[よ]越ひとり可もね无

In modern standard kana, and split into the 5 lines of the waka:

あしびきの やま鳥[とり]の尾[を]の したりをの ながながし夜[よ]を ひとりかもねむ

A parse/analysis: (again, if anyone has *any* ideas as to how I could make these more accessible, I'm willing to do it. I have no idea how to alt text these.)

And a rough translation:

Must I sleep this night, ever so long as the dangling tail of that bird of the foot-pulling* mountains, alone?

*this is my best attempt at interpreting the 枕詞, 足引きの, based on its component parts, 足[あし] 'foot' and 引き 'pulling, tugging' (noun).

Again, I probably missed a lot of meaning, but that’s what practice and learning is for! This is a reminder that I’m no expert, I am but a lowly student, and this post is probably replete with errors despite my best efforts.

[randompoemsfrommybrain]

1.

Winter melts away

as I take your hands in mine

fluttering petals

settled in your raven hair

herald the return of spring.

[tinnitus07]

i dream in the reds and oranges

and in yellows too

how wilted leaves covered

the path in front of me

relentless hope softly dying

or entering a heartbroken hibernation

i can't see any other hues

than the crimson leaves which fell

and that i once saw with you

~ season's changing, i'm busy though. i would love to be writing more

[wakamotogarou]

Shinkokinshū

ながむとて花にもいたくなれぬればちるわかれこそかなしかりけれ

My melancholy gaze Upon the flowers has brought a pain Most familiar, so This falling parting is more full Of sorrow still.

nagamu tote hana ni mo itaku narenureba chiru wakare koso kanashikarikere

[nemfrog]

Ogura hyakunin isshu (One hundred poets, one hundred poems). 1680.

"This illustrated book of Ogura hyakunin isshu (One hundred poets, one hundred poems) is a collection of one hundred 31-syllable classical Japanese poems (waka), each by a different poet. The collection is organized chronologically from Emperor Tenji (626-671) to Emperor Juntoku (1197-1242). Each of the poets is depicted by a woodblock print created by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-circa 1694). Morobonu is often considered the first Ukiyo-e artist." Library of Congress

LOC

[crazyfox-archives]

A pamphlet from Hana no Iwaya Jinja Shrine (花窟神社) in Kumano City, Mie Prefecture, referenced in the “Chronicles of Japan” (日本書紀) (compiled in 720) as the burial tomb of the progenitor goddess Izanami no Mikoto (伊邪那美命) after her demise giving birth to the fire deity, with the pamphlet featuring a shot of the front entrance of the shrine along with a waka poem by Motoori Norinaga (本居宣長) (1730-1801) which can be translated as:

Down in Kii Province, A sacred rope drawn across The flowery cave For long ages without end, A small town divine wonder

Acquired at the shrine April 2, 1995

[ragewrites]

Midwinter Triptych, Lianna Schreiber 28-29 / 01 / 2023 § Prior to the pandemic, I used to write a fair amount of seasonal poetry, just sort of observing and recording the world around me. It still seeps in, of course, all my poems come to me in the moment and the moment is coloured by its backdrops, but...I lost my sense of time these past few years, it’s fair to say. And I would like it back. So, this year I promised myself I’d write at least one landscape per month; this is January’s, and unintended, too. I just paused in the window at three different moments since yesterday morning... :]

[cherryblossomlion]

Ono no Komachi, Part 1

I will be back with a longer post about Akemi's favorite poet, one of the 36 Poetry Immortals, as well as one of the six great waka poets of the Heian period, aka the Rokkasen.

🌲

The waka is an umbrella term for a number of poetic forms-- but one by one, all of them but the tanka fell into disuse. So in a way, waka evolved into tanka, a short, lyric poem. Here is one example by Ono no Komachi:

🌲

So many, many things…

by the old rock, the pine is dreaming too…

its branches bend with a thousand years:

all the way down… till they meet the ground…

Picture credits: top by Okada Tamekichi, bottom by Utagawa Hiroshige

[hippodamoi]

am i an obsessive researcher when it comes to my fics? perhaps

[battkinzie]

It's hard to forget

Someone who lives in your heart

Long after leaving

Seeing their face in all things

Hearing their name in the wind

[gleaningsinbuddhafields]

The 101st Poem of the Hyakunin Isshu

While watching competitive karuta online, and in person, I noticed that there is a certain poem at the outset of a match, but that’s interesting is that this is a poem that is not actually part of the Hyakunin Isshu. Osaka (Naniwa) Bay at sunset, Quelgar’s photos, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons This poem is called the joka (序歌), or preliminary poem, and…

[hisakata-no-amanogaha]

百人一首, poem 5: 猿丸大夫

Day 5 of this little challenge! I'm still out of unique things to say in these intros. Today's poem is by Sarumaru Taihu (猿丸大夫), from the same text, same manuscript, same transcription conventions.

奥山[おくやま]にも三ぢ婦三王けなく鹿[し可]の 声[こゑ]きくと起ぞあき八可なしき

In modern standard kana, and split into the 5 lines of the waka:

奥山[おくやま]に もみぢふみわけ なく鹿[しか]の 声[こゑ]きくときぞ あきはかなしき

A parse/analysis: (again, if anyone has *any* ideas as to how I could make these more accessible, I'm willing to do it. I have no idea how to alt text these.)

And a rough translation:

In the deep mountains, the times when I hear the crying deer's voices pushing through the autumn colours! Autumn is heartrendingly (beautiful/sad*).

*かなし often signifies uncontrollably strong feelings towards one's partner. It can mean painfully beautiful, as in 愛し, or heartrendingly sad or pitiable, as in 悲し. This scribe writes the word only in kana, leaving it ambiguous.

Again, I probably missed a lot of meaning, but that’s what practice and learning is for! This is a reminder that I’m no expert, I am but a lowly student, and this post is probably replete with errors despite my best efforts.

[randompoemsfrommybrain]

4.

In fields of green and

gold, the humble dandelion

raises its yellow

head in worship of the sun

before joining the white clouds.

[autumntundra]

River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko

[wakamotogarou]

Shinkokinshū

On a folding screen in the Engi Period (901-923).

春さめのふりそめしよりあをやぎのいとのみどりぞ色まさりける

Spring rains First fell, staining, since then, The lush willows’ Threads with green- The colour darkening.

harusame no furisomeshi yori aoyagi no ito no midori zo iro masarikeru