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.
