Sunday, February 14, 2010

Fisherman

Chinese calligraphy scholar P. Wong today suggested I read a poem entitled Fisherman, written by Chinese poet LIU ZONGYUAN (773-819).  He is also known as LIU TSUNG-YUAN.

I found Liu's biography here along with fine translations of some of his poems. In his poem Fisherman, Liu's imagery paints a beautiful landscape very similar to the Japanese poem Minase Sangin Hyakuin.  I find Fisherman to be another masterful poem; simple, yet beautiful.

The Fisherman
A fisherman spends the night under West Rock,
pails clear river water and burns bamboo.
Smoke vanishes, sun rises and no one is seen.
The oar-sound turns mountains and water green.
Floating the central current, he turns to gaze at sky
above rock where mindless clouds chase each other.

A Poignant Verse and Obsession with Minase Sankin Hyukuin

Hi all,
I hope you read and enjoyed my last post. That post celebrated my reading of the first 8 verses from the classic japanese poem Minase Sankin Hyakuin.

So how did I get hooked on this poem?

Well, in some obscure document, while I was browsing through the SAAM library archives, I discovered the single most poignant verse I have ever set eyes upon - it conveyed this sad emotion using only 31 syllables.

Here is the verse:

Minase Sangin
A Poignant Verse
Poets:
Sogi, Shohaku, Socho
English translation by:
Nobuyuki Yasa
Japanese

In a sorrowful voice
A cricket is heard singing
Beneath the withering grass.

I paid a call to a friend of mine,
Taking a desolate lane by the hedge.

nakumushi no
kokoro motonaku
kusa karete

kakine o toeba
arawanaru michi

The verse has greatest emotional impact (to me) when read in isolation from the larger poem - the context is different, and this verse inspired my search for all 100 verses of Minase Sankin Hyakuin, eight of which I posted yesterday.

I think I have all 100 verses now, after possibly finding them in a recent visit to the SAAM library, so you may be seeing more Minase Sankin Hyakuin blog posts in the future :-).

Friday, February 12, 2010

Minase Sangin Hyakuin

I just discovered the opening portion of this beautiful, picturesque renga poem created in Minase, Japan on January 1488 by three famous poets--Sogi, Shohaku, and Socho (see poem at bottom of page).

The poem's hokku, or opening verse, was created by Sogi who was by far the greatest of the three master poets.

As the three poets gathered together in a room, they each took turns creating successive poem verses, carefully linking the verses together so they flowed into one another, creating in words the vision of a beautiful landscape painting. The poem was improvised on-the-spot!

Sogi created the first 17 syllable verse (first 3 lines in japanese), then Shohaku created the next 14 syllable verse (next 2 lines), and finally Socho created the third 17 syllable verse (next 3 lines), and so on...

Please enjoy Minase Sangin's first eight verses shown below:

Minase Sangin
1st 8 verses
Poets:
Sogi, Shohaku, Socho
English translation by:
Nobuyuki Yasa
Japanese
Snow-capped as they are
The gentle slopes of the mountains
Fade into the hazy mist
at twilight on a Spring day.

The river descends far & distant
Plum-fragrance filling the village.

In a soft river breeze
stands a single willow tree
Fresh in Spring colour

At early dawn every push of the oar
Is audible from a passing boat.

There must be a moon
Dying in the morning sky
Wrapped in heavy fog

The ground is covered with frost,
The Autumn is drawing to a close.

In a sorrowful voice
A cricket is heard singing
Beneath the withering grass.

I paid a call to a friend of mine,
Taking a desolate lane by the hedge.
yukinagara (5)
yamamotokasumyu (7)
yubekana (5)

yuku mizu tooku (7)
ume niou sato (7)

kawakaze ni (5)
hitomura yanagi (7)
harumiete (5)

fune sasu oto mo (7)
shiruki akegata (7)

tsyuukiyanao (5)
kiriwataru yo ni (7)
nokoru ram (5)

shimo oku nohara (7)
akiwa kure ni keri (8)

nakumushi no (5)
kokoro motonaku (7)
kusa karete (5)

kakine o toeba (7)
arawanaru michi (7)

It was nice wasn't it?

As I read the poem, this image formed in my mind:

There is a snowy mountain, its summit poking up above the mist. There is a river flowing down, out of the mountain, through a plum orchard, and past a village.

Still in early morning light, there is a moon behind the clouds, a man slowly, quietly rowing a boat, and throughout all of this, there are only the sounds of an oar dipping into the water, crickets chirping, the river, and the breeze.

I discovered this poem in the introduction to The Narrow Road to the Deep North - it was elegantly translated from japanese into english by Nobuyuki Yuasa.

I found a good explanation of renga poems in Minase Sangin - An Introduction to Renga , but the translation provided there was not as enjoyable - possibly too literal..