Cherry Blossoms are a lesson

#densutejo #haiku #sakura #japanesepoetry

HANA WA YO NO

TAMESHI NI SAKU YA

HITOSAKARI 

Den Sutejo

Flowers for this world 

a lesson their blossoming

Brief prosperity

The translation is mine

(copyright J.Vaux 2022)

Hana is flowers and usually in haiku cherry blossom sakura

Yo here is world not leave

I take the no as being for not of in English 

It can function as both in Japanese

Tameshi can mean example precedent experience test trial 

Saku the verb to blossom 

I think an example being a lesson works best in English due to the final line.

Hitosakari hito plus sakari is one of those words that could be translated by a whole sentence! Something that prospers flourishes is at its best just once or for a brief time.

Sakari is probably from the verb sakaru rather than saku.

This seems to be a choice invoking the word sakura without actually using it?

One translator has this as temporary prosperity but I hope brief is allowable and its usage along with lesson actually enabled me to have it be meaningful in English and follow the 5 - 7 - 5 format of Japanese!

Oranges and Cicadas

 ORANGES AND CICADAS

#waka #cicada #tachibana #hagoromo #japanesepoetry #oranges

Original post 2022 

Reposted with some edits 2024 

I was looking for poems about tachibana and trying to avoid the usual cliches about the scent of orange blossom. The Japanese grow tachibana mainly for the scent. Other types of citrus are grown for fruit.

Its an odd plant in that its described as "native" to Japanese but its a hybrid of a hybrid of a sub species that somewhat made it to Japan and its not quite the same plant as the Chinese version.

This is by Fujiwara Takanobu 

Noki chikaki 

Hanatachibana ni 

Kaze sugite 

Nioi o nokosu 

Semi no hagoromo 

Close by my (house) eaves(from) the orange tree the breeze leaves behind its scent (on) the cicadas robes (or wings) 

Probably he was sitting on a verandah facing a garden with a tachibana tree nearby and he could see a cicada nearby or hear it and imagines the scent also drifting on the breeze onto the cicada but wait!

Hagoromo is it robes or wings ? Hagoromo is literally feathered garment but the word is also used to describe wings and plumage. Cicadas have wings but no feathers and I wonder if seeing their glossy translucent wings made the poet think of summer gauzes those light silken under robes aristocrats might strip down to at home in the summer heat ? 

The poem was written as part of a poetry competition with summer as a theme. 

KASAGI TWO

 KASAGI TWO

Having you shown you the poem and a translation this time ... here's a poem "card" I made>

I may post this and a larger poster size version on Reb Bubble Deviantart or Patreon ... havnt decided where ...

The illustration was done using Inkscape plus some brush texture added in Gimp.

A note from next week due to a schedule change and lockdown I may only be able to post once a week instead of about every 4- 5 days as my volunteer hours may change if or when we go back to partial lockdown in Sydney and my PAID work hours ... well lets say it would be great if I had a lot more followers and hence some Adsense or sales income ?  

Kasagi Sequence One

 #kasagi #waka #japanesepoetry #fujiwarashunzei #shunzei #samidare #kumogakuretsutsu 

KASAGI SEQUENCE 

I will be posting about this poem here and some illustrations inspired by it over on my Patreon.

This is one of those poems that seem quite simple until you analyse and translate it and realise the skill involved.

Starts off quite simply 

samidare      so early summer rain in May but then 

minakami masaru the rain is overwhelming everything ?

izumigawa spring river ?  origin river ? er no 

it took me 2 weeks of research to find out that Izumigawa is an old name for what is now known as the Kizugawa river south of Kyoto 

and the next line seems simple kasaki yama  okay Mount Kasagi in modern Japanese but enter it as a google search term and you may get Kasagiyama near Ena in Gifu! 

so is it flooding or just heavy rain or mist or fog rising from the river 

Kasagiyama is a place you go to for cherry blossom viewing and pilgrimages to an old Shingon buddhist temple and sightseeing various boulders or climbing on them.

Perhaps Shunzei was there for a buddhist retreat for look how he ends the poem 

kumogakuretsutsu kumo + gakure +tsutsu something like continually disappearing ?

so the mist or rain is fluctuating or is it a double reference implying he's there in a hermitage a hidden place maybe looking down upon the river valley?

Elegantly simple yet every reading rises another question ?

Or perhaps I just need to study a lot more waka poetry? 

Fragrance on sleeves

#waka #orangeblossom #tachibana

There is an "anonymous" poem in the KoKinshu KKS III 139 about orange blossom.

Satsuki natsu 

hanatachibana no

ka (w)o kageba

mukashi no hito no

sode no ka zo suru

Fifth lunar month summer

flower(ing) orange of 

fragrance (or possibly this) scent verb causal 

past / long ago / of people / person of

sleeve(s) of scent note that suru can mean does make or leave trace 

In the fifth month summer orangeblossom the / this scent of  causes me ( to think of ) from the past people 

because of traces of scent on sleeves.

A note since Heian aristocrats did not to my knowledge use a orange blossom scented perfume or incense the scent of the sleeves may be a sachet placed with clothing in storage.

Its summer perhaps some low ranking courtier has been tasked with taking clothing out of storage.

The screen doors are open. The scent of orange blossom is wafting indoors from trees outside and inside this is reinforced by the traces of scent on sleeves.

Scent and memory.  

I'm lonely and it's autumn

I'M LONELY AND IT'S AUTUMN

An irreverent look at themes in the #HyakuNinIsshu
#waka #autumn #japanesepoetry #heianpoetry

The#Hyaku-Nin-Isshu anthologyof 100 #Heian poets includes many of the major and popular subjects and themes that appear in that era's poetry.

Here's a tally of certain themes

I'm very clever at with word play and double meanings 15X

OH the Moon the moon preferably rising over mountains 10X

Perhaps because even the most poetry obsessed Courtier had gotten fed up with them the two common themes of
Yet another pun on oosaka and ausaka barrier and Naniwa beach and bamboo nodes
curiously only appear twice

Maple leaves make early autumn tolerable and an excuse for a picnic 6X

My sleeve is wet with rain or tears
will someone please invent the umbrella and tissues  4x

OH the white on the whiteness!
UNseasonal snow or frost  contrasting with something matte white or dark 5X

WAH I'm all alone expect for my house boy and the other servants and the peasants down the bottom of the hill from my "hut" or my actual country house with spring and garden. 18X

Pathetic annoying animal and bird noises ... bloody rutting stags etc 3X

Late Autumn is cold windy and dreary especially at dusk and I am very sad 9X

I like Japanese poetry but sometimes its easy to see why the Japanese of the Tokugawa era developed Haiku!?

Murasaki and Musashino

KKS XVII 867 Anon thougt possibly Narihira ?

#kokinshu #heianpoetry #murasaki #musashino

The theme for November is PURPLE and the word Murasaki refers
to both a plant and the color of its blossoms - PURPLE

Murasaki no           plant of
Hito moto yue ni    single /the poet as individual?  stem or origin yue ni reason for being there
Musashino no                  musashi plains  once grasslands now covered by modern Tokyo
Kusa wa minagara    grasses while seeing
Aware to zo miru.     appreciate indeed seeing

I had to expand this for it to be poetic in English

A single plant of murasaki
is the reason for my visit
to Musashi's plains
its plants are worth viewing
yes indeed worth seeing

Where Tokyo is today was once a wide stretch of grasslands low hills and rivers
Very different from the mountains and farmlands around Kyoto's valley.

I'm still laptop free n have limited net access
next time I can get near a computer
SUMIRE 2 haiku by Chiyo

Like these translations ?

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The Tamakura Problem

#Priest SOGI #spring #waka #LateHeian #tamakura

SOOGI a Zen Priest 1421-1502was noted for writing Waka Renga and Haiku.

This poem is GSRJ XV 480 and also appears in Miner.

Yo o samumi 
Ume ga ka chikaki
Tamakura ni 
Tsuki wa kasumite 
Harukaze zo fuku

Night of cold or Cold World

(Soogi was of commoner background and a priest)

Plum blossom scent nearby chikaki = chikashii

on arm pillow  Miner adds a reference to tears on sleeves that is NOT in the Japanese text !

A Zen priest with an arm pillow I get stuck here

Either in this case Tamakura might be a place name or he's not just refering to his sleeves but to everyone present or he's being very ironic given he was to my knowledge not like Ikkyu

I cant shake off the feeling he's used a simple cliched phrase and given it multiple levels of irony

moon blurring dim hazy sprint mist? the thickness of pollen?

spring wind emphatic particle blows

The first part of this pillow is quite "normal" but what is a Zen priest doing and where

I would love to know if there was ever a place near Kyoto anywhere in Japan called Tamakura.

Frankly I could see the Japanese calling a hamlet or remote hermitage thats nestled between hills "arm pillow".

If there is a double or triple meaning that adds so much more depth to the poem.


Sorry there's no Kanji but my laptop died and I'm using a library terminal!

Please help me get a new or used refurbished laptop ASAP

paypal.me/JulieVaux

Naku Shika No

#autumn #waka #sarumaru #heian #japanese #poetry

Oku yama ni 

Momiji fumi wake 

Naku shika no 

Koe kiku toki

Aki wa kanashiki 

This is one of the earliest poems to use the deer's cry phrase.

I translate this as

Deep in the mountains

oku+yama+ni
not mountainside as some do

Momiji is maple leaves but I suspect fumiwake is one long compound verbal and the romaji should be rendered as one word however to translate accurately
its fumu+wakeru
is the poet trampling on leaves or pushing through a pile of them?
note that wake can mean dividing so I choose

Pushing through maple leaves

Naku shika no the cry of the deer(s)

Koe kiku toki

sound works time the sound works on effects or maybe hear time

Aki autumn wa subject marker

kanashiki is Bungo modern form is kanashii sad mournful pathetic

Deep in the mountains
Pushing through maple leaves
(I hear) the cry of the deer
A sound making autumn mournful

Yes its four lines not five but it makes the translation a poem in English and not just a paraphrase?

Frost and Confusion

#hyakuninisshu 29  mitsune ooshi koochi #waka #japanesepoetry
aristocrat provincial governor and one of the people who helped compile the kokinshu anthology.

Kokoro ate ni
Orabaya oramu
Hatsu shimo
Oki madowaseru
Shiragiku no hana.

There's nothing quite like confronting damaged plants to freak out a gardener or the owner of a garden. This is one of those waka that describe a simple event but the poet's skilled use of language turns his description of his dismay into a masterpiece.

word its something like
heart hope or hit ? at /on
fold / break if only (i could) I wish to break / fold / bend?
oramu is reinforcing orabaya or oraba ya ?
first / new frost on
place = confused / perplexed his position state of mind and the flowers
white chrysantheums of flowers

It seems he's come outside to pick or select flowers for cutting and to his horror found there was a severe unexpected frost and his beloved flowers are at the least marred or will be when they thaw or a solid mass of ice that cant be cut without damaging the whole plant

I have to confess I'm not entirely sure I understand the second line as well as I could even after consulting the Bungo manual.

I'm welcome to ideas on that!

Haiku and Linking Lines

Due to its popularity I'm reposting this with a few minor edits.

Two examples of  #Haiku #micropoetry one by me and one from #chiyo that demonstrate using assonance  to link links and images

I wrote this one this morning. The weather changed last night from unusually warm to more wintry after a night storm.

Now the weather's changed

With Puritan Reverence

The Crows speak of rain.

Crows are black and the English Puritans especially their ministers were noted for wearing black and dark colors and its Sunday in my timezone also I've been reading 17th century English History.

The sound of the crows calling early morning bring things together and the use of w in each line helps the linkage or three ideas sounds and images.

Now here's one from #Chiyo who lived in 18th century Japan.

Koe nakuba / sagi ushinawan / kesa no yuki

literally  voices if not (having)
herons disappear
now time = morning of snow

Chiyo's town of Matto is near Hakusan a mountain with snow fields now used for skiing. This is a winter poem so I'm keeping with the theme for this series of poems. Koe naKuba Kesa yuKi K K K   and the soft contrast of Sagi uSHinawan

Enjoy.

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The Memory of a Summer Storm

 #japanese poetry #waka

This poem is about 1500 years old and was composed in the Asuka period by Empress Jito. Its 2 in the #hyakuninisshu anthology and 1.28 in the #manyoshu

Haru sugite / Natsu ki ni kerashi / shirotae no /
koromo hosu tefu / ama no kaguyama

Spring has passed
Summer Surprise!
"White sleeves"
robes spread to dry they say
on Amakaguyama.

Now this was probably written  when the Imperial Place was south of this mountain which has a shinto shrine and isn't actually very high (google a photo!)
though one commentator claims it was written at the fujiwara palace north of  mountain.

A point I have seen NO English language commentators make is that the use of kerashi a fusion of keri and rashi indicates that something most UNseasonal has occurred. A lot of articles and essays and notes draw attention to the use of shirotae which could be translated as white sleeves or white garment and often refers to other white things like snow or frost or fog anything white that covers something else.

These white sleeves are not those of modern kimonos but something more like the big sleeves you see in NO or Kabuki drama that Shinto priests wear so I do mean BIG sleeves!

A lot of scholars presume this is a reference to a legend about white robed heavenly dancers blah blah blah which leads to translators inserting references to angels that do not exist in the original text!

Tefu according to my Bungo Manual means or equals to iu they say and it is said and you may see it written as choo if you have a copy that changes the archaic Japanese into modern Japanese.

OH and the Yamato area while being surrounded by mountains ... well heavier snow usually occurs elsewhere and remember the reference to summer?

and yes I did take liberties with that line to emphasize kerashi !

This poem records a freak weather event! 

WHITE WAKA ONE

#white #waka #tanka #hyakuninisshu

The most common color adjective in the famous #HyakuninIsshu anthology is white. Yes I went and counted. The next most common are red and black.

I counted 7 using shiro or shira or shirotae.

There  are a couple of more that use phrases and verbs that could be translated as white or whiten.

Poem 2 about seeing a mountain still snow capped  at the beginning of summer

shiro tae no white sleeves / robes

Poem 4 being seeing snow on Fuji also uses shirotae

Poem 6 refers to white frost shiro ki

Poem 29 compares and links heavy frost to whiteness and white chrysantheums shiragiku

Poem 31 compares light reflecting off a heavy fall of white snow to moonlight

yoshino no sato ni fureru shira yuki

Poem 37 shira tsuyu white dewdrops compared to jewels

Poem 76 compares clouds and waves

kumoi ni magoo okitsu shira nami

I'll be translating a few or all of these over the next few weeks !

Brocade Project Waka 3 NOIN

#update bumping this a year later 2015 cos its "seasonal" late autumn / winter my time zone / hemisphere #autumn #waka #noin #japanesepoetry #poetry

Okay here's a waka by Nooin 11th century AD

( My arm has finally improved enuff to allow typing with BOTH hands instead of ONE finger!)

Arashi fuku / mimuro no yama no / momiji ba wa /
tatsuta no kawa no / nishiki narikeri

This is another of those waka that seem deceptively simple but when you contemplate it realise  each syllable works in exquisite harmony with others.

Arashi fuku a fierce wind blowing down off the mountains

Mimuro yama is an area south east of Kyoto

Momiji ba wa maple leaves

Tatsuta is a river which currently has a special riverside path and park

nishiki narikeri brocade become like

the wind has scattered the leaves all over the river's surface

so prosaic a statement in English and yet poetic in Japanese !

Brocade Waka Two

Suguwara  no Michizane wrote

Kono tabi

Nusa mo toriaezu

Tamukeyama

Momiji no nishiki

Kami no mani mani

This poem can be found in the Hyakuninisshu

This person on this journey or at this time tabi has a double meaning
offerings for the moment hopefully sufficient implied
nusa is a staff with strips of paper or silk attached  but can also mean strips of silk or coins
Tamukeyama is a temple at Nara and the name tamuke means (hall of ) offering

maple branch probably of brocade

gods (i am ) at mercy of or the gods may take consequent action or not

this may be indirect criticism of his treatment by the Imperial Court
implying all  he could afford is a maple branch and his fate and career needed the mercy of the gods?

I wish I could be typing Nara as a location tag. Right about now one of those really expensive ryokan with a hot bath would be good for my right arm which is broken.