#Waka poetry

[verminsmillions]

Twelve Days of Taimizu - Day 3: Words

The first chapter of book two is up! (I will be trying to make regular update posts here on tumblr from now on, seems like it might be helpful)

[onethousandsummers]

[Life in humanities] Translation Thusdays

Maybe happiness is translating poetry on Thursday evenings. But read carefully, for words have double meanings.

Akazome Emon shū: 100 [Akazome]

Sent having heard of his presence in a place bonds with which were said to had been severed. Perhaps by the Mountain of Miwa 我が宿は松にしるしもなかりけり杉むらならばたづねきなまし My dwelling pines and signs on them there aren’t. Had this been a cedar grove, perhaps you would have called.

Akazome Emon shū: 101 [Masahira]

In reply 人をまつ山路わかれずみえしかば思ひまどふにふみすぎにけり Where you pine – across the trees a mountain passage unfamiliar appears and with my thoughts in confusion, treading through the cedars I have gone past.

Translations from classical Japanese are my own, done earlier this evening while we were discussing these poems from the personal collection of court lady Akazome Emon 赤染衛門 (956?–1041?).

The exchange recorded here is between Akazome Emon and her husband Ōe no Masahira 大江匡衡 (952–1012).

[gleaningsinbuddhafields]

How To Recite the Hyakunin Isshu Like a Pro

If you’re here reading the blog, chances are you like the poetry of the Hyakunin Isshu. Who doesn’t? Maybe you like it so much, you’ve tried to memorize your favorite poems too (I do). But what’s better than memorizing your favorite poems? Reciting them! When I first learned to play karuta, I realized that poems of the Hyakunin Isshu are recited in a specific style in Japanese. This is necessary…

[randompoemsfrommybrain]

1.

Winter melts away

as I take your hands in mine

fluttering petals

settled in your raven hair

herald the return of spring.

[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.

[tenjin-no-shinja]

〜Sucess〜 A Waka Poem

The state of learning 

Is a never ending phase 

with much frustration Failure is a friend of mine

To whom we toast our success

習得は

悔し不断な

存在だ

失敗は友

喝采がする

The original Waka I first wrote was:

Learning is not just,

A linear progression.

Fail a thousand times.

Taking a road less traveled.

Success from adversity.

習得は

片道はない

千失敗だ

新道試す

難から勝利

since it was my first I hadn't quite figured out the mechanics of the poem style so I wanted to rework it :D

[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��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

[cntarella]

Death is closer than you think. Trace my throat with your fingertip. I am not faking a fever. Sweat collects between my clavicles. I cannot fathom dying before your embrace. So, please—.

09/09 : Nine Japanese Female Poets / Nine Heian Waka by Naoko Fujimoto

[ichijin]

kigi no ha ga irodzukidashite kono kokoro atashi no mono ni nido to narimasen

木々の葉が色づきだしてこの心 あたしの物に二度となりません

as the trees' leaves begin to turn yellow so will this heart never again be mine

[fallingicarus111]

Poem 6. [Waka (Bussokusekika) ].

Petrichor.

The iridescent

Hues, last gleam of poignant blue.

An eulogy to

My lost vernal diary.

Each drop of the tear from blue,

A petrichor of new bloom.

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~NØIR.

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..

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...

[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

[gleaningsinbuddhafields]

Professor Mostow Upcoming Lecture!

Hello, I wanted to share an exciting opportunity for readers. The University of Washington, my alma mater, is hosting a lecture in-person and online by none other than Professor Joshua Mostow! Dr Mostow’s book Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image Years ago, Dr Mostow graciously allowed me to use his translations of the Hyakunin Isshu for this blog, and readers have…

[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... :]

[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.