Gosenshu 6

Gosen wakashu Volume 6: Autumn 2 後撰和歌集巻第六　秋中

271

延喜御時に秋の歌めしければ、たてまつりける

In the Engi period, [the Emperor] asked for an autumn poem, and [Tsurayuki] provided these.

紀貫之

Ki no Tsurayuki

秋霧の立ちぬる時はくらぶ山おぼつかなくぞ見え渡りける

akigiri no                When the autumn mist
tati-nuru toki ha         Has risen up to enwrap
kurabuyama                Kurabu Mountain,
obotukanaku zo            Looking across the whole place
mie-watari-keru           It is difficult to see.

Autumn mist

There's no clear indication whether this should be akigiri or akikiri; I've gone with the majority, but Takeoka reads it akikiri on the basis of other compounds like harukasumi that are unvoiced.

Kurabu Mountain

A mountain in old Yamashiro province; used in poetry for its association with kurasi (dark), and thus hard to see or navigate.

--

The second volume of autumn poems begins with two public poems by Tsurayuki in response to Imperial request, which introduce two major autumn themes. The first one is autumn mist, a major theme in KKS autumn poetry as well. The difference between the spring kasumi and autumn kiri is difficult to represent in English translation; there's a tradition of translating kasumi as "haze" and kiri as "mist".

This poem is a fairly simple evocation of the scene of a mountain wrapped in mist, with the pun on the mountain's name.

272

花見にといでにしものを秋の野の霧に迷ひてけふはくらしつ

hanami ni to              Although I went out
ide-ni-si mono wo         Thinking to view the flowers,
aki no no no              In the autumn field
kiri ni madohi-te         I've gotten lost in the mist
kehu ha kurasi-tu         And wasted the whole day through.

--

The second of Tsurayuki's poems introduces the general idea of autumn flowers. Specific flowers will soon begin to show up in the poems; a few of the flowering plants appeared in the first volume but the flowers in particular were not mentioned.

Kigin praised these two poems as skilled and elegant, and a perfect example of Tsurayuki's poetry. Kifune praised the evocation of a dream/fantasy world; the poet wandering lost in the mist, imagining the beautiful flowers he came out to see.

A similar poem appears in the Kokin waka rokujo:

音に聞く花見にくれば秋霧の道さまたげに立ち渡りつつ

I came to see the flowers I heard rumor of, and mist kept rising up to block the path.

Katagiri draws attention to another poem by Tsurayuki, KKS 116:

春の野に若菜つまむと来しものをちりかふ花に道はまどひぬ

I went to the spring fields to pick young shoots, but the scattering cherry blossoms made me lose my way.

273

寛平御時后宮の歌合せに

Read at the Empress' Poetry Competition in the Kampyo era

よみ人しらず

Poet unknown

浦ちかくたつ秋きりはもしほやく煙とのみぞ見えわたりける

ura tikaku                The mist of autumn
tatu akikiri ha           Rising down there near the bay:
mosiho yaku               As smoke that rises
keburi to nomi zo         From seaweed burned for its salt
mie-watari-keru           That is all I see it as.

--

The public group of poems continue, this time with a poem from a competition. Although the author is not listed here, it's found in the Okikaze Collection with a slightly different final line (ayamatarikeru, "I mistake it for..."). The image is fairly clear; the smoke from burning seaweed is often found in love poetry to show the smoldering of the poet's heart. A similar poem to this appears in the Nakatsukasa collection but with spring haze instead of autumn mist. SIS 1096 is also similar, written for a screen painting:

藻塩焼く煙に馴るる須磨の海人は秋立つ霧も分かずやあるらん

I wonder if the saltmakers at Suma, so used to the smoke from the burning seaweed, can tell it apart from autumn mist?

274

同じ御時の女郎花合はせに

In the same [Kampyo] era, at a patrinia flower contest

藤原興風

Fujiwara no Okikaze

をるからにわがなはたちぬ女郎花いざおなじくははなばなに見む

woru kara ni              I plucked the flower
waga na ha tati-nu        Rumors started right away,
wominahesi                The patrinia,
iza onajiku ha            Well then, if it's all the same,
hanabana ni mi-mu         I'll just look at all of them!

In the same era

According to other records, this was actually in 898, the first year of the Shōtai era.

Patrinia flower contest

The Heian nobility engaged in a great deal of "matching contests", where teams each presented a particular item and a judge decided on which one was better. Poetry contests stem from this practice. The patrinia appears in KKS 226-238, showing the importance of the flower. The frequency of use in poetry is partly connected to the name wominaesi, since the first three syllables suggest "woman".

Plucked the flower

Plucking a flower is often used in love poetry as a metaphor for a romantic encounter with a woman.

--

This poem, recited at an event where patrinia were being matched, is a humorous poem declaring that Okikaze will look at all the flowers. The other meaning of the poem is that if he's going to get a bad name from sleeping with one woman, he might as well sleep with as many as he can. Hanabana ni may suggest the word hana ni which is used in a few poems to indicate entering a romantic relationship without serious intent.

As noted above, 226-238 in the KKS all feature the patrinia, and several (226 for example) use the idea of picking the flower, and then getting a bad name for being a playboy.

The next three poems are from this contest, serving as a transition between the rigidly artificial poems of the beginning of the book, to the private exchanges that follow.

275

よみ人しらず

Poet unknown

秋の野の露におかるる女郎花はらふ人なみぬれつつやふる

aki no no no            In the autumn fields
tuyu ni oka-ruru        They are covered in dew,
wominaesi               The patrinias
harahu hito nami        There are none to brush it away
nure-tutu ya huru       And so, drenched, they pass the time.

--

As with the previous poem, this has a secondary meaning -- the women cry because the men do not visit them, and so they pass their time in tears. Kifune notes the "elegant sorrow" paired with an actual scene of the flowers in the field. The Shinsho also seems to indicate this is an actual view of a field, but the judging contest would have been done in a building of the capital. Some older commentaries suggested the imagery of the second line is the dew being married to the flower; such a reading is found in other Heian poetry (like SIS 160) and is possible here.

276

をみなえし花の心のあだなれば秋にのみこそあひわたりけれ

wominaesi                The patrinias
hana no kokoro no        Have flighty natures in their
ada nare-ba              Flower hearts, and so
aki ni nomi koso         It is only in autumn
ahi-watari-kere          That I can come to see them.

--

The final poem in the sequence has the same comic tone as the other poems. In this case, the poet is explaining why patrinias only bloom in the autumn -- because they have flighty or romantic natures, and so the only time they appear is in the autumn. Some commentators take aki ni nomi koso ahu here to be a play on "only meet in autumn" and "only meet when they are tired of me." Katagiri rejects this view.

Kigin identifies this as a moral lesson to women. Such explanations arise out of a continuing uneasiness with the morality of romantic poetry.

Most texts follow this poem with KKS 1015; there is no particular reason why that poem should be placed here (the autumn imagery is generic), and perhaps Teika eventually excised it from his later manuscripts for that reason.

277

母の服にて里に侍りけるに、先帝の御文たまへりける御返りごとに

When she was at home wearing mourning clothes for her mother, she wrote this response to a letter from the former Emperor.

近江更衣

The Omi Intimate

さみだれにぬれにし袖にいとどしくつゆおきそふる秋のわびしさ

samidare ni                   In the fifth month rains
nure ni si sode ni            These sleeves became sopping wet;
idodosiku                     Now even more so
tuyu oki-sohuru               Dew lays heavy upon them
aki no wabisisa               The sorrowing of autumn

Prose preface and author

The Omi Intimate was a woman in Emperor Daigo's court. An Intimate (koi) is an unofficial rank below that of the Consorts (nyogo); her name would come from either her birthplace, or perhaps her father was connected to Omi in some way. Her identity is uncertain. The rites in effect at the time required a year and 50 days of mourning for a parent, and she would have been away from the palace for at least some of that time. While she was there, Daigo (the "Former Emperor") would have sent her letters, and this poem represents one of her responses. There are other poem exchanges between Omi and Daigo later in this collection, and in some of the later collections.

Fifth month rains

This suggests when her mother died.

--

After the three comic poems at the patrinia festival, we take a sharp turn into a mourning poem. The dew which was used humorously to suggest the tears of the patrinia flowers now becomes the tears of the Omi Intimate who has lost her mother. She uses both a summer and an autumn image as metaphors for tears to show her grief. The Kansho says that the poem contains no new imagery or innovative construction, but the poem shows her sorrow well. Kifune tries to read the aki of the last line as meaning "you have forgotten me" but construes that as an expression of thanks. I do not understand this interpretation.

This poem is drawn on several times in the Tale of Genji; most notably in the first chapter when the Emperor (who is based partly on Daigo) sends a messenger to his beloved Kiritsubo's mother. Her response poem is similar to this one but the situation is flipped, with a mother mourning for her child.

The next 12 poems are exchanges, many of them involving the highest ranking men in the court.

278

御返し

Honorable response

延喜御製

The Engi Emperor [Daigo]

おほかたも秋はわびしき時なれどつゆけかるらん袖をしぞ思ふ

ohokata mo                 Normally it's true
aki ha wabisiki            That autumn is a season
toki nare-do               Of sorrow, and yet
tuyu kekaru-ran            I can only think of your
sode wo si zo omohu        Sleeves wet with the dew of tears.

--

Daigo's response uses the same imagery as Omi's poem; the emphasis of the last line shows his care and thought for her. He suggests that even though everyone is sorrowful and crying in autumn, her sorrow is even greater.

279

亭子院の御前に花のいとおもしろく朝露の置けるをめして見せさせ給ひて

In the front garden of the Teiji Mansion, there were very beautiful flowers with morning dew laying upon them; he took them and showed them to [Ise].

法皇御製

An Honorable Composition of His Cloistered Eminence [Retired Emperor Uda]

白露のかはるもなにかをしからんありてののちもややうきものを

siratuyu no                  Why should we lament
kaharu mo nani ka            When the transient white dew
wosika-ran                   Vanishes away?
arite no noti mo             It is living forever
yaya ukimono wo              That's more and more uncertain.

--

We move from Daigo to his father Uda, in an exchange with Ise. The autumn imagery here is the dew. The poem is difficult to interpret; the last two lines are variously interpreted as "Living after the dew" or "If the dew lived longer" -- I have translated Katagiri's suggestion that arite no noti is an idiom from MYS times that means living forever. Katigiri also interprets yaya as "slightly"; I have used the more common interpretation of "gradually".

Some commentators see this as an allusion to Uda's abdication, which Kifune disagrees with. One of Norinaga's disciples wondered if this was an allusion to Ise changing her heart, but Norinaga disagreed with that. The most direct meaning is a reflection on the transience of life and the suffering of the world; perhaps with allusions to actual events.

One possible indication of a reference to Uda's abdication is this poem from when Uda was about to step down:

白露のおきしかはればももしきのうつろふ秋はものぞかなしき

When the white dew laid here vanishes, the fading autumn of the palace is quite sad.

In the Ise Collection 279 and 280 are swapped, making this a response to the next poem.

280

御返し

Honorable Response

伊勢

Ise

うゑたてて君がしめゆふ花なれば玉と見えてやつゆもおくらん

uwe-tate-te                  You planted with care
kimi ga simeyuhu             And then marked them as your own
hana nare-ba                 These flowers, and so,
tama to mie-te ya            Perhaps you can see the dew
tuyu mo oku-ran              Lying as white shining gems.

--

Ise's response takes Daigo's sorrow and turns it into a more positive light, perhaps alluding to the lotuses of the pure land (Kifune), or the Emperor's virtue (Katagiri).

This poem is reused in the SIS (167), where the prose preface says that Ise composed this poem when asked to by Daigo. The Ise Collection treats this exchange differently in different manuscripts. Some have it like the GSS, while others have this as a poem in response to an Imperial command, with 279 as Daigo's own response.

281

大輔が後涼殿に侍りけるに、藤壺より女郎花を折りてつかはしける

When Taifu was in the Koroden, he sent this from the Fujitsubo along with a patrinia he broke off.

右大臣

The Minister of the Right [Fujiwara no Morosuke]

折りて見る袖さへぬるるをみなへしつゆけき物と今やしるらん

ori-te miru               I broke it and looked,
sode sahe nururu          And even these sleeves are wet,
wominahesi                The patrinia
tuyu-keki mono to         Now you surely understand
ima ya siru-ran           What a dew soaked thing it is.

Prose Preface

Taifu was a gentlewoman in the service of Empress Anshi, Morosuke's daughter. The Fujitsubo was near the Koroden, and Morosuke would have had many chances to become acquainted with his daughter's gentlewomen.

--

The next four poems are an exchange between Fujiwara no Morosuke and Taifu. The poems are difficult to interpret; Norinaga was asked by two of his disciples about them and he declared them incomprehensible. The Shinsho also notes that every time you think you understand them it's not quite right, and puts off discussion of them. The modern commenters don't take this line, but they come up with completely different interpretations.

For this poem, I think one of the sticking points is the use of the patrinia flower. Some commenters have insisted on this being a metaphor for Taifu (or even Anshi, according to Kifune). If the patrinia is Taifu, the poem must mean "After just seeing you (patrinia) once, my sleeves are wet; do you understand now what a dew-soaked creature I am?" My issue with this interpretation is that it seems odd to have the symbol for Taifu be drenched in Morosuke's tears, and the poem doesn't make sense if Taifu is the one that's crying.

A more direct way to read the poem is that the patrinia is not a symbol for anything; it's simply used as an appropriate seasonal flower, and for its association with dew. this seems to be the interpretation of Kudo. In this case, the poem simply means "Look at the dew on this patrinia just from me picking it; do you now see how much I'm crying over you?"

As a final possibility, if this exchange were included primarily to showcase Taifu's poems, perhaps Morosuke's poem is not especially skillful. He has 13 poems in the GSS and 2 in the SIS, which is not a huge sampling.

282

返し

Response

大輔

Taifu

よろづ世にかからむつゆををみなへしなに思ふとかまだきぬるらん

yoroduyo ni               The patrinia
kakara-mu tuyu wo         Will be covered with the dew
wominahesi                For eternity;
nani omohu to ka          Then what could you be thinking
madaki nuru-ran           That would make you cry so fast?

--

Of course the interpretation of this response depends on what 281 means.