1.
しぬる命いきもやすると心みに玉のをばかりあはむといはなむ—藤原 興風, KKS 508
Dying of love for you, won’t you see me again
— Even for just a few moments?
Perhaps restoring me back to life… Fujiwara no Okikaze
Imagine her joy at receiving this written proof of his desire for her? In his beautiful cursive handwriting, her beloved has copied a famous love poem from the Kokinshu Anthology. How it must have pleased her to know he is longing for her as much as she longs for him.
And yet the lady responds in the oddest way by sending him a poem in the Chinese style —written entirely in Kanji.
At the time, love letters were usually exchanged using kana (referred to as the female script) and love poetry especially was written Japanese-style. But Murasaki Shikibu was no ordinary woman—and her father was, of course, a great scholar of Chinese language and culture. So maybe she couldn’t resist showing him a bit of her intellectual prowess?
I love the way the writers of the Taiga drama have turned the gender conventions on their head. And poor Michinaga is perplexed enough to turn to his own classics teacher and mentor—and deeply unsettled, asks him, “What in the world can it mean when a lady responds to a love letter with one written in Chinese?”
The teacher smiles and responds in just the way you would expect by referencing the famous preface by Ki no Tsurayuki of the Kokinshu, the anthology in which Fujiwara no Okikaze’s original poem appeared.
やまとうたは、人の心を種として、万の言の葉とぞなれりける 世の中にある人、ことわざ繁きものなれば、心に思ふ事を、見るもの聞くものにつけて、言ひ出せるなり 花に鳴く鶯、水に住む蛙の声を聞けば、生きとし生けるもの、いづれか歌をよまざりける 力をも入れずして天地を動かし、目に見えぬ鬼神をもあはれと思はせ、男女のなかをもやはらげ、猛き武士の心をも慰むるは、歌なり
Japanese waka has its roots in seeds in our minds and hearts, which blossom in ten-thousand leaves-words. To be alive in the world means to have feelings about those things we see and hear. And these things we feel we express in words. When we hear a warbler singing in the blossoms or the chanting frogs in the paddies, we realize that all life has its song.
That is a loose translation— but basically it points to the way that Japanese poetry has long been linked to personal feelings vis-a-vis nature and longing. Waka poems aim to fix the poet’s emotions out in nature and at the same time in the words of the poem.
But Michinaga knows this already—wasn’t he trying to tell her his deep feelings? Why would she respond with a famous Chinese poem, he demands to know!
Again his teacher smiles and responds with a famous trope saying that, while Japanese poems are about deeply felt personal emotions, or heart seeds—Chinese poetry is about aspirations 志—
Michinaga does not look satisfied. Would you?
陶淵明:帰去来辞
Returning Home by one of my favorite poets, Six Dynasties poet Tao Yuanming (b. 365). Like Michinaga, Tao Yuanming is at a great turning point in his life. He sees the path has gone off track. And he seeks a course correction—in this case: he vows to return home and take up a life of rural simplicity.
Tao Yuanming is one of my favorite poets—one of his poems is my desert island poem…. Do you have one of those? If I could only take one poem with me, it would be this one, about Plucking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence: 採菊東籬下
Murasaki Shikibu, however, is not urging Michinaga to renounce his responsibilities and take up life as a gentleman of leisure in the countryside. But rather she is urging him to take up his birth right and become a leader to try and work for a better world.
歸去來兮,田園將蕪,胡不歸?
Time to go home!
Though my garden will be full of weeds, how can I not return?
既自以心為形役,奚惆悵而獨悲。
It was me who put my mind into bondage,
so why do continue being sad and lonely?
I did not realize that Red Pine has a new book of translations out: Choosing to be Simple: Collected Poems of Tao Yuanming.
Here is the first couple of stanza — by the great Red Pine! Aspirational, indeed!
I’m returning home
the garden would be all weeds if I didn’t
since enslaving my heart to my body
how depressed and miserable I have been
I realized I couldn’t restore the past
but I could make up for it in the future
I hadn’t gone too far astray
I was wrong yesterday but right today
my boat rocked in the lightest of winds
Recommended:
In English: This wonderful essay in Lithub by Marie Mutsuki Mockett on the Tale of Genji
In Japanese: For those who want to think more about the political and historical context of episode 10, I enjoyed this Kashimashi video,『大鏡』に描かれた花山天皇の出家
Ah, the mystery of love poetry! Wonderful piece, Leanne. And I am thinking about a collection of Japanese poetry written after WWII (in a box here somewhere), because I am now curious (thanks to Oppenheimer flying around the world) how love poems faired ever since; the bombing never mentioned by a single poet, but always in the background.
I translated an essay by Mamoru Oshii over a decade ago for Oshii scholar Brian Ruh, and while the material didn't make his book, I remember it well. Oshii was a fan of renouned Chinese language scholar Shirakawa. Shirakawa said that kanji were the playthings of the gods, their path to the world of men. And ours to theirs. I'm paraphrasing, ofc, but Oshii went on to say that's why he used kanji in manadalas or power (computer interfaces and starship warp portals), because of the power kanji represented. I have been in love with that essay ever since.