Written on Water Read online

  The world was filled with fog.

  (3034)

  366

  "Let us fall and fade

  Together like dewdrops

  Sparkling on the grass at morn,"

  He would say to me.

  What could have become of him?

  (3041)

  367

  As sleek seaweed

  Drifts in the sea intertwined,

  So Let us lie entwined.

  Come to see me, my dear one,

  To end my painfuL wait.

  (3079)

  368

  Oft I am rebuked

  Like a horse that steals feed

  From another manger.

  But my heart so longs for him

  That I can never sever our ties.

  (3096)

  369

  At dawn

  You hurry away.

  By the river

  Stop your horse and Let him drink.

  There I'll have a good look at you.

  (3097)

  The following poem is a proposal of marriage or courtship from a man. In her reply poem, the woman politely declines his proposal.

  The proposal

  370

  As camellia ash is added

  To make purple dye,

  Who are you that

  I glimpsed at the camellia fair

  Where all the world crossed paths?

  (3101)

  The reply

  371

  Fain I'd let you know

  The name my mother calls me,

  But I have yet to learn

  Who you are. You're a passerby

  Who has but chanced to speak to me.

  (3102)

  From a man

  372

  From tomorrow

  l shall travel far away,

  Greatly missing you.

  Early come to bed tonight,

  And untie your sash, my sweet.

  (3119)

  His wife's reply

  373

  'Tis no time to sleep.

  Let us spend the night in talk.

  Hence never fail

  To appear in my nightly dreams,

  That we may renew

  The joy of our wedding night.

  (3120)

  374

  It has begun raining now,

  And the night has worn away.

  'Tis too Late for you to go.

  Why not bide here

  And undo your sash?

  (3124)

  375

  Being far away,

  I can't see her lovely grace.

  And yet night and day

  My dear girl's smiling face

  Floats before my eyes.

  (3137)

  376

  I see my beloved wife

  Reduced to a shadow

  Of what she once was,

  Hoping that I might return

  By the time the year is out.

  (3138)

  377

  Now that you are gone

  On your travels far away

  How forlorn and helpless I feel!

  I now know

  How deep is my love for you.

  (3140)

  378

  Could I have foreseen

  How I long for,

  How I miss my love,

  I'd have striven to win her heart.

  Bitterly I rue the day.

  (3143)

  379

  I cannot know

  What is in store for me,

  But you are so dear to me

  That I have followed you

  Up the hills and down the vales.

  (3149)

  380

  Let me tie a knot

  In your inner sash,

  While you do the same on mine.

  We will never undo our knots

  Till the day we meet again.

  (3181)

  381

  You'll be Long away

  On your travels.

  After you are gone,

  Even glorious moonlit nights

  Will be the darkest black for me.

  (3208)

  382

  Morning after morning

  Toward Tsukushi I face,

  Sunk in bitter grief,

  Praying to the gods

  For the welfare of my Love.

  (3218)

  383

  Crossing the hill,

  I come in view of Lake Biwa,

  Where waves

  Rise and break in foamy crests

  As white flowers in bloom.

  (3238)

  384

  Could I find

  A replica of you

  In the Land of Yamato,

  There would be no cause

  For my deep Longing.

  (3249)

  385

  Bitter jealousy

  Which inflames me

  Is the work of my heart.

  My sweet love for you

  Is also the work of my heart.

  (3271)

  386

  My mind is dazed

  With impassioned love for her.

  Try as hard as I may,

  I cannot even count the nights

  When I must sleep alone.

  (3275)

  387

  Even from my dear mother

  I have hidden my love for you.

  But now, for all that,

  I have placed at your sweet will

  All my heart and all my love.

  (3285)

  388

  O would it be every night

  That the jet-black horse came,

  With my gallant one astride,

  Dashing over the stony sands

  Along the shallows of the stream.

  (3313)

  In the following long poem with its envoy, a woman expresses her concern for her husband's traveling on foot and urges him to buy a horse. Her husband's reply poem follows.

  Wife

  389

  Going down the Yamashiro Road,

  Other husbands ride horseback.

  I never see my husband dear

  Go on foot his weary way

  But my heart cries in pain.

  Gladly will I sell

  My precious mirror

  And my gossamer silken hood

  Left me by my mother

  So that you may buy a horse.

  (3314)

  Envoy

  390

  What is the use

  Of my precious mirror,

  If my husband

  Has to walk his weary way?

  Go, husband, sell my mirror

  And buy a horse.

  (3316)

  Husband

  391

  Should I buy a horse,

  Still, we cannot ride together.

  Though I stumble on stones,

  I will walk along with you.

  (3317)

  392

  You are now all young,

  But in time you will be old

  With snow-white hair,

  And you'll be the butts of children's jests,

  Just as you make fun of me.

  (3793)

  393

  Should my parents

  Discover our affair,

  Fain I'd be interred with you

  In a stone-walled tomb

  Atop Mt. Hatsuse.

  (3806)

  394

  In the grove

  Where the mandarin oranges grow,

  Once, with a sweet girl I lay.

  With her hair set high,

  She now must be fully grown.

  (3823)

  395

  Hark! Around the gate

  Plovers cry.

  Wake up. Rise and go,

  My dear husband of one night,

  Lest they find you here.

  Footnotes

  In ancient times a human soul was considered to dwell in the hollow o
f the body of the koto.

  A poem expressing a mother's concern for her son, who was a member of a Japanese mission sent to the court of the Tang dynasty in 733.

  Spring in Japan is a time of hazy vistas.

  No. 247 was sent by a man to a married woman, inviting her to renew their affair. No. 248 is a reply poem by the woman, saying that since she is already married, she can no longer afford to take pleasure in sportive love.

  In the original, the plant is the akebi, not wisteria. The akebi is a vine that bears light purple blossoms and succulent pods containing sweet, juicy flesh.

  The Japanese refers to a deutzia, not a daisy.

  Probably a poem by a woman.

  Possibly a poem by a frontier guard.

  The poet may be of either sex, but this poem probably is written from a woman's standpoint.

  See note to No. 215, page 94.

  By a man late in visiting his love.

  In Man'yō days, generally the mother had the greatest authority at home. The girl in the poem has won her mother's consent and urges her lover to visit her freely.

  A reply poem by a woman to a man who claimed he was dying from love of her.

  Probably a man's poem to a woman who told him that his courtship lacked sincerity.

  This seems to be a common theme in Man'yō poetry. See Nos. 315, 331, and 345 and compare Nos. 70 and 164.

  A woman is expecting her lover will come on horseback.

  Probably the poet is glad at heart that her love affair with a well-known man is gossiped about.

  A poem expressing a woman's impatience for a visit from her lover, who is not likely to come.

  See note to No. 287.

  A reply poem by a woman to her lover's poem inquiring if she has a new lover. She wonders why he has not visited her for a long time.

  Her lover did not appear that night.

  This poem is substantially a folk song.

  A coquettish woman replying to an amorous advance.

  See note to No. 287.

  A poem by a woman whose husband lives in a separate home and visits her at night. This kind of marriage was not uncommon in Man'yō days.

  The image of tieing a knot in the inner sash that fastened underclothes occurs frequently in Man'yō poetry, as does the sensual image of loosened undergarments. There was a belief that if lovers tied a knot in each other's inner sashes, they would be able to meet again, when the knots would be untied. When a married man left on a long journey, his wife often tied a knot in his sash or in the cord used to tuck up his sleeves. See Nos. 91 and 105.

  See note to No. 287.

  A poem probably composed by a frontier guard, by a man who lost his wife, or by a man away from home on a journey.

  When a crescent moon goes down before dawn, the sky becomes suddenly dark.

  The Saho is a river near the city of Nara.

  A girl is sharply rebuked by her mother, but is unable to give up her lover.

  After visiting his love at night, a young man hurries away on horseback. In the dark of night, she could not obtain a good look at him.

  Purple was a noble color used for dyeing the attire of the three highest court ranks. What seems like a forced allusion today is meant to convey the fact that a woman of beauty and worth becomes particularly noticeable when she mixes with the general public.

  Her decline of the proposal in No. 370 is demure. If a girl revealed her name to a stranger offering a proposal of this sort, she indicated her acceptance of it.

  This poem reads like a folk song.

  See note to No. 344.

  Yamato refers not only to the region of that name (present-day Nara prefecture) but also to the whole of Japan.

  This is substantially a folk song.

  Mt. Hatsuse was dreaded as a place for interring the dead.

  See note to No. 215, page 94.

  Generally women's poems express sorrow or regret at parting from a sweetheart. This folk-song-like poem is exceptional.

  East Japan

  A total of 231 anonymous poems of East Japan are collected in volume 14 of the Man'yōshū. These poems are divided into two groups: those whose original provinces are known, and those whose original provinces are unknown. In this book, sixty-five of the finest have been selected, regardless of their origins.

  East Japan was completely subjugated by the central Yamato regime in the fifth century. Thereafter, the provincial governments of East Japan made a point of manifesting obedience and loyalty to the central government and accorded courtesy and hospitality to governors and officials sent by the court. As a result, though the East was relatively remote from the capital, the region was under the cultural sway of the imperial court.

  Provincial government offices in the East are presumed to have offered local poetry and folk songs, as a testimony of their loyalty and allegiance, to the Imperial Bureau of Poetry.

  Before the fifth century, when the Japanese language was first given written form, poetry was mostly composed for singing. The word uta meant both song and poetry, and song and poetry were one and the same thing. From the sixth century, poetry came to be composed not only to be sung but also as a literary accomplishment.

  In Man'yō days, composing poetry was a major pastime of the educated and cultured. Even married couples exchanged love poems for pleasure and diversion. Folk songs remained a source of inspiration for anyone who dabbled in poetry.

  Some of the anonymous poems in the Man'yōshū, especially in the poetry of East Japan, read like folk songs, either songs accompanying dances or work songs.

  On occasions such as welcome and farewell events for high officials and also at parties, poems resembling folk songs were read, and troupes of professional entertainers performed dances accompanied by folk songs.

  The controversy continues regarding the extent to which folk-song material and forms are present in the Man'yōshū.

  396

  I don't care a straw

  For my gorgeous robe

  Woven of new silk.

  What I desire to don

  Are the clothes you wear.

  (3350)

  397

  How I wish to sleep

  In my beloved's bed,

  As smooth and soft

  As a noble's bed

  With thick, downy quilts.

  (3354)

  398

  Long and arduous

  Is the road around the foot

  Of Lofty Mt. Fuji.

  In my eagerness to see my love,

  I have halved the traveling time.

  (3356)

  399

  As a vine by the shore

  Clings fast to a rock,

  So you have

  ALL my trust,

  Despite my mother's wishes.

  (3359)

  400

  Snares and traps were set

  On Mt. Ashikaga.

  While folk were off to collect the game

  With the clanging of cymbals,

  Secretly I lay with my dear love.

  (3361)

  401

  As we ignore familiar Mt. Sagami,

  So I tried to forget my dearest,

  Not Looking back.

  However, turning on the mountain road,

  I wept when her name escaped my Lips.

  (3362)

  402

  I am on the way

  To sleep with my Love.

  The River Minase,

  Which I have to cross,

  May soon be in flood.

  (3366)

  403

  Why do you rest your head

  On a pillow of sedge

  Growing on the hill?

  Come, my sweet Love, why not

  Make a pillow of my arm?

  (3369)