4
For a fifty-verse set of poems composed for presentation to the retired emperor.
Cloud darkened,
this ancient village:
in falling snow
not a trace of spring
yet surely it has come.
Kunaikyo
I enjoyed this poem because I feel as if I can empathize with it somewhat, and because of it's imagery. The scene of a rustic old village, dark and slowly being covered with the falling snow really set up the whole scene of the poem for me. I felt like the speaker may be someone living in this town, now on the verge of spring, just waiting for the traces of spring to appear, and knowing that even though the world may seem dark now, spring's arrival surely will come and breathe new life into the ancient village. I myself am pretty excited for the arrival of spring, and although the first day of spring in the US isn't until sometime in March, I feel that, like the speaker if it were to still be snowy and cold that I would still have faith in spring's arrival. This poem also showcases some of the traditional views of spring, as I feel it is seen positively here, while the winter, represented by snow and cold is seen as less so.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Shunzei poem
Shinkokinshu, Love 2, No. 1107
Sent to a woman on a rainy day.
When I gaze off
toward your skies,
unable to bear the longing,
the spring rain falls,
parting the mist.
Shunzei
This poem was interesting to me both because of the emotive qualities that it held and also because of the barrier in the poem, and its apparent fix. Here, Shunzei seems to feel so strongly about a woman that nature itself expresses his feelings, extending a rain shower over the mist which hides his love form his view. At first this seems okay to me, but looking at it a second time, I began to think how the rain would most likely be a even bigger barrier than the mist which it had just parted. Perhaps it is not the love who is ever revealed, but rather his feelings about having to be separated by whatever social barrier keeps them apart. In the mist, the situation might have been obscured and unclear, but with the rain, or perhaps a downpour of tears, even though his love may still not be in sight, his feeling about this love may now have finally broken through.
Sent to a woman on a rainy day.
When I gaze off
toward your skies,
unable to bear the longing,
the spring rain falls,
parting the mist.
Shunzei
This poem was interesting to me both because of the emotive qualities that it held and also because of the barrier in the poem, and its apparent fix. Here, Shunzei seems to feel so strongly about a woman that nature itself expresses his feelings, extending a rain shower over the mist which hides his love form his view. At first this seems okay to me, but looking at it a second time, I began to think how the rain would most likely be a even bigger barrier than the mist which it had just parted. Perhaps it is not the love who is ever revealed, but rather his feelings about having to be separated by whatever social barrier keeps them apart. In the mist, the situation might have been obscured and unclear, but with the rain, or perhaps a downpour of tears, even though his love may still not be in sight, his feeling about this love may now have finally broken through.
Saigyo Poem
Shinkokinshu, Miscellaneous, No. 1676
From a tree
standing on a cliff
by an old field
the voice of a dove calling a friend
in the eerie twilight.
Saigyo
The imagery of this poem was really beautiful to me. I thought it did a really good job at painting an autumn scene, not entirely desolate as a winter one might be, but close. I also enjoyed the contrasting imagery of the eerie twilight and the dove and its song, or 'voice'. Looking at the footnote, I also found it interesting that the author chose to represent himself as this dove, and is crying for friendship or love even though he has taken the Buddhist oath, going along with his style of creating tension between living without attachments and the longing for attachments. I thought the choice of a dove was also very appropriate for him in terms of this, as doves are often to be seen as good an pure, standing out here from the rest of the scene in the same way that the full moon might stand out from the night sky.
From a tree
standing on a cliff
by an old field
the voice of a dove calling a friend
in the eerie twilight.
Saigyo
The imagery of this poem was really beautiful to me. I thought it did a really good job at painting an autumn scene, not entirely desolate as a winter one might be, but close. I also enjoyed the contrasting imagery of the eerie twilight and the dove and its song, or 'voice'. Looking at the footnote, I also found it interesting that the author chose to represent himself as this dove, and is crying for friendship or love even though he has taken the Buddhist oath, going along with his style of creating tension between living without attachments and the longing for attachments. I thought the choice of a dove was also very appropriate for him in terms of this, as doves are often to be seen as good an pure, standing out here from the rest of the scene in the same way that the full moon might stand out from the night sky.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Paper #1
I chose this series of poems from the Kokinshu’s Book 5 of Love, the last in the series of love poems. As these poems are drawn from the Book 5 of Love, each deals with the end of love in some fashion. This particular sequence has a large feeling of waiting associating with them, and appears to go through the stages of lost love.
Book XV
Love Poems (5)
771 • Topic Unknown
By and by I’ll come
He said and since that morning
My cries of sorrow
Have blended with the mournful
Droning of the cicadas
Henjo
This poem shows the longing of one whose lover has not fulfilled their promise. The promise itself was made in the morning, when the two would have parted, but still would have been together. This might also refer back to the ‘morning’ of the relationship; an earlier part of it when their love was still fresh, without blemish or problems. Now however, the lover left behind has waited and mourned for so long that their cries have become monotonous, comparatively like what is to be described here as the mournful droning of cicada. Although the situation looks bad for the waiting lover, they still seem to have some semblance of hope, as they are still waiting and crying for them, and as a reference to the cicada indicates the summer months when one might long for their lover, separated by the falling rain, similar to falling tears.
772 • Topic Unknown
Won’t he come hopeless
Question yet with each passing
Night I find myself to await him
When cicadas drone at dusk
Anonymous
Continuing to the next poem, the reader is again confronted with a poem about waiting upon a lover. However, this time instead of having the feeling of a promise still lingering form the morning, this poem deals with waiting at night, hoping for a surprise visit. Their questioning of whether their lover will actually come is also referred to as ‘hopeless’, indicating a more obvious break between the two. Again, like the previous poem, cicadas again play a role, giving off the sense of waiting over and over again, like the repetitive noise heard from the cicadas song. If this is connected further to the previous poem, one might take it for what could be the cries of the lover, as they now more hopelessly wait for their lovers return.
773 • Topic Unknown
Now it’s over—
Despondent I recall our
Love but then as an
Omen of your return a
Lucky spider climbs my robe
Anonymous
Here it is seen that a love is seemingly over, though still painful. However, there seems to be a change, instead of seeing a love fade and being left with little hope for it, a spider climbs the lovers robe, perhaps indicating that the love that seemed to be fully over may not be entirely gone. When connected with the previous two poems it could seem as if the endless waiting has led the lover to finally give up hope, only to gain it again due to the movement of a spider, perhaps indicative of the irrational hope that those whom have experienced a disappointment may cling to. Spiders are also most common in Summer and Fall, so in collective terms, the presence of a spider could perhaps be signaling the movement of a love from the summer phase to the fall.
774 • Topic Unknown
now he will come no
more this I know and yet each
night I forget once
more unthinkingly I long
for him waiting never ends
Anonymous
This particular poem likens itself very much to poems number 771 and 772. Again the lover is waiting for what appears to be a lost love. However now, they have accepted that their previous lover will no longer come back to them, yet still carry the feeling of having to wait forever for their return. The waiting this time is now tied to night, instead of the morning or dusk, a more progressive state in losing a lover. In terms of mood, this poem is much more hopeless than its predecessors, however it does not share as much of their melancholy ties to nature, which may signal a more detached mood.
775 • Topic Unknown
on such a moonlit
night I cannot help but wait
for one who will not
come oh that it would cloud and
rain then forlorn I might sleep
Anonymous
The introduction to this poem is decidedly in the past, signified by the presence of the moon. Upon seeing it, the speaker is forced to think back to a lost lover, one whom it has been accepted to not be coming back. And although the speaker is swayed to spend their night thinking to the past and looking at the moon, they show signs of the ability to let the relationship stay in the past, as they feel they might sleep if only the moon were obscured. This denotes that the love is truly in the past, with no hope, though pain is still being derived from it. In terms of how it is connected with the previous four poems, it carries the feeling of still waiting upon a lost love, however, the speaker in this poem is slightly less attached than the speakers in the previous poems. In this way, this poem may signify what could be the beginning of the end.
Together, I feel like these poems deal with the emotions one might undergo as they realize what was once a fruitful love is now over. This series of poems starts off with what appears to be the initial heartbreak of one who finds that their lover’s morning promise to return might never be fulfilled, and starts off a series of waiting for the return of said lover. The next poem continues upon this waiting motif, but now seems a bit further along in the heartbreak, as there is no connection made to a previous promise to return. Poem #773, the next in line, provides somewhat of a break in the series. Now, the speaker has started with knowledge that the love is over, but then finds hope for its return, unlike the two poems before it and the two poems following it. Besides helping to break up the series, this could denote the hope that sometimes comes along even in a situation of lost love. However, it is interesting to note that the actual lost lover’s arrival does not appear in the poem, leading the reader to know that the speaker must still be waiting for their return. Continuing along to poem #774, we find again that the feelings have changed back to accepting that the affair is over. The waiting feeling is continued once more, again drawing back to poems #771 and #772 with the feeling of endless waiting. In the transition to poem #775, the waiting feeling again pulls through, however this time it seems to be dampened. Now instead of just the mere thought of the old lover, it is the moon which seems to spark the mournful feeling, and the speaker wishes that it could be covered so that it would no longer spark their memory. In this way the moon really points to the relationship being in the past, and ends the transition from poem #771 where the better days of the affair were still stepped in the speaker’s mind.
This movement from initial heartbreak to its end stages seems to me appropriate for the 5th book of Love. It is the last book dealing with love in the Kokinshu, and thus focuses on the end of love. Here, although all of these poems deal with the closing of a relationship, they are collectively able to show the progression of the feeling, centered around the waiting that is quite often described as monotonous and which appears throughout the line of poems. The changes in each poem reveal the changes ones heart might experience over time, how it might feel relative to symbolic imagery of time, and with poem #773, how feeling may even relapse intermittently.
Book XV
Love Poems (5)
771 • Topic Unknown
By and by I’ll come
He said and since that morning
My cries of sorrow
Have blended with the mournful
Droning of the cicadas
Henjo
This poem shows the longing of one whose lover has not fulfilled their promise. The promise itself was made in the morning, when the two would have parted, but still would have been together. This might also refer back to the ‘morning’ of the relationship; an earlier part of it when their love was still fresh, without blemish or problems. Now however, the lover left behind has waited and mourned for so long that their cries have become monotonous, comparatively like what is to be described here as the mournful droning of cicada. Although the situation looks bad for the waiting lover, they still seem to have some semblance of hope, as they are still waiting and crying for them, and as a reference to the cicada indicates the summer months when one might long for their lover, separated by the falling rain, similar to falling tears.
772 • Topic Unknown
Won’t he come hopeless
Question yet with each passing
Night I find myself to await him
When cicadas drone at dusk
Anonymous
Continuing to the next poem, the reader is again confronted with a poem about waiting upon a lover. However, this time instead of having the feeling of a promise still lingering form the morning, this poem deals with waiting at night, hoping for a surprise visit. Their questioning of whether their lover will actually come is also referred to as ‘hopeless’, indicating a more obvious break between the two. Again, like the previous poem, cicadas again play a role, giving off the sense of waiting over and over again, like the repetitive noise heard from the cicadas song. If this is connected further to the previous poem, one might take it for what could be the cries of the lover, as they now more hopelessly wait for their lovers return.
773 • Topic Unknown
Now it’s over—
Despondent I recall our
Love but then as an
Omen of your return a
Lucky spider climbs my robe
Anonymous
Here it is seen that a love is seemingly over, though still painful. However, there seems to be a change, instead of seeing a love fade and being left with little hope for it, a spider climbs the lovers robe, perhaps indicating that the love that seemed to be fully over may not be entirely gone. When connected with the previous two poems it could seem as if the endless waiting has led the lover to finally give up hope, only to gain it again due to the movement of a spider, perhaps indicative of the irrational hope that those whom have experienced a disappointment may cling to. Spiders are also most common in Summer and Fall, so in collective terms, the presence of a spider could perhaps be signaling the movement of a love from the summer phase to the fall.
774 • Topic Unknown
now he will come no
more this I know and yet each
night I forget once
more unthinkingly I long
for him waiting never ends
Anonymous
This particular poem likens itself very much to poems number 771 and 772. Again the lover is waiting for what appears to be a lost love. However now, they have accepted that their previous lover will no longer come back to them, yet still carry the feeling of having to wait forever for their return. The waiting this time is now tied to night, instead of the morning or dusk, a more progressive state in losing a lover. In terms of mood, this poem is much more hopeless than its predecessors, however it does not share as much of their melancholy ties to nature, which may signal a more detached mood.
775 • Topic Unknown
on such a moonlit
night I cannot help but wait
for one who will not
come oh that it would cloud and
rain then forlorn I might sleep
Anonymous
The introduction to this poem is decidedly in the past, signified by the presence of the moon. Upon seeing it, the speaker is forced to think back to a lost lover, one whom it has been accepted to not be coming back. And although the speaker is swayed to spend their night thinking to the past and looking at the moon, they show signs of the ability to let the relationship stay in the past, as they feel they might sleep if only the moon were obscured. This denotes that the love is truly in the past, with no hope, though pain is still being derived from it. In terms of how it is connected with the previous four poems, it carries the feeling of still waiting upon a lost love, however, the speaker in this poem is slightly less attached than the speakers in the previous poems. In this way, this poem may signify what could be the beginning of the end.
Together, I feel like these poems deal with the emotions one might undergo as they realize what was once a fruitful love is now over. This series of poems starts off with what appears to be the initial heartbreak of one who finds that their lover’s morning promise to return might never be fulfilled, and starts off a series of waiting for the return of said lover. The next poem continues upon this waiting motif, but now seems a bit further along in the heartbreak, as there is no connection made to a previous promise to return. Poem #773, the next in line, provides somewhat of a break in the series. Now, the speaker has started with knowledge that the love is over, but then finds hope for its return, unlike the two poems before it and the two poems following it. Besides helping to break up the series, this could denote the hope that sometimes comes along even in a situation of lost love. However, it is interesting to note that the actual lost lover’s arrival does not appear in the poem, leading the reader to know that the speaker must still be waiting for their return. Continuing along to poem #774, we find again that the feelings have changed back to accepting that the affair is over. The waiting feeling is continued once more, again drawing back to poems #771 and #772 with the feeling of endless waiting. In the transition to poem #775, the waiting feeling again pulls through, however this time it seems to be dampened. Now instead of just the mere thought of the old lover, it is the moon which seems to spark the mournful feeling, and the speaker wishes that it could be covered so that it would no longer spark their memory. In this way the moon really points to the relationship being in the past, and ends the transition from poem #771 where the better days of the affair were still stepped in the speaker’s mind.
This movement from initial heartbreak to its end stages seems to me appropriate for the 5th book of Love. It is the last book dealing with love in the Kokinshu, and thus focuses on the end of love. Here, although all of these poems deal with the closing of a relationship, they are collectively able to show the progression of the feeling, centered around the waiting that is quite often described as monotonous and which appears throughout the line of poems. The changes in each poem reveal the changes ones heart might experience over time, how it might feel relative to symbolic imagery of time, and with poem #773, how feeling may even relapse intermittently.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Kokinshu 72
I seem bound to sleep
in this village tonight:
led astray by falling
blossoms, I've forgotten
my way home.
This poem really seems to illustrate how both figuratively and, in this case, literally, a person viewing a sight such as cherry blossoms may get lost in them. The speaker feels if they are bound to this village with cherry blossoms, and may have perhaps forgotten their way home on purpose so that they might spend time in a town surrounded by this important figure of beauty. In reading this, I picture someone with their head literally up in the clouds, staring at the falling petals and cloud like branches, wandering about to fully take in the sight. The blossoms here literally lead the speaker away, showing their importance with how strong of a bond they have over them.
in this village tonight:
led astray by falling
blossoms, I've forgotten
my way home.
This poem really seems to illustrate how both figuratively and, in this case, literally, a person viewing a sight such as cherry blossoms may get lost in them. The speaker feels if they are bound to this village with cherry blossoms, and may have perhaps forgotten their way home on purpose so that they might spend time in a town surrounded by this important figure of beauty. In reading this, I picture someone with their head literally up in the clouds, staring at the falling petals and cloud like branches, wandering about to fully take in the sight. The blossoms here literally lead the speaker away, showing their importance with how strong of a bond they have over them.
Kokinshu 305
Let me pause to watch
before I cross:
though they fall like rain
the red leaves
will not swell the river's waters.
I feel that this poem really draws attention to the beauty of autumn. The speaker in the poem takes time to stop and gaze upon the falling of the autumn leaves around them, speaking to their significance. The leaves are then compared to the rain, but also contrasted. By saying the leaves fall like rain, the reader can both tie the leaves to another beautiful image; that of the falling of rain, but can also contrast how the leaves are different from the rain in the next two lines, where both the color and effect of the leaves contrasts that of rain. In doing so, one may be reminded of the melancholy image of rain, while still being assured that though the leaves are similar in one aspect, they will not swell or agitate the river, like rain or tears might.
The beauty of the two contrasting but similar elements in this poem is what really drew me towards it; both the rain and the bright colors of the fall leaves are some of my favorite sights and I think that by almost looking at both at once, each image seems more beautiful than it might on its own. The river I felt also added a lot to the poem, as it presented me with an image of an almost nonstop flow of bright red leaves decorating its surface.
before I cross:
though they fall like rain
the red leaves
will not swell the river's waters.
I feel that this poem really draws attention to the beauty of autumn. The speaker in the poem takes time to stop and gaze upon the falling of the autumn leaves around them, speaking to their significance. The leaves are then compared to the rain, but also contrasted. By saying the leaves fall like rain, the reader can both tie the leaves to another beautiful image; that of the falling of rain, but can also contrast how the leaves are different from the rain in the next two lines, where both the color and effect of the leaves contrasts that of rain. In doing so, one may be reminded of the melancholy image of rain, while still being assured that though the leaves are similar in one aspect, they will not swell or agitate the river, like rain or tears might.
The beauty of the two contrasting but similar elements in this poem is what really drew me towards it; both the rain and the bright colors of the fall leaves are some of my favorite sights and I think that by almost looking at both at once, each image seems more beautiful than it might on its own. The river I felt also added a lot to the poem, as it presented me with an image of an almost nonstop flow of bright red leaves decorating its surface.
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