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I am such a wayward reader. A few coincidences in the last couple of days led me to this beautiful collection of Japanese medieval poetry, translated by an American poet Kenneth Rexroth. Enchanted by Winter in Sokcho that takes place in Korea, which we are currently discussing in a GR reading group, I watched again two of my favorite films by a great Japanese director with the similar, yet in medium different, poetic beauty, lyrical simplicity and melancholy. And then I came across a GR friend’s tempting review of this book, all of which promptly decided for me to take it off my shelf and read at once.

Not only did I enjoy my immersion into the meditative poems that are supreme in the Japanese literary tradition, but also learned more about their poetry that preceded haiku. Two anthologies were central in the medieval period with compiled poems from various hands over several centuries, mostly in the short form of tanka in 5 lines and its variant sedoka in 6 lines, �Ѳ��Բ�õ Shū (“Ten-Thousand-Leaves Collection��) from the 8th century and Kokin Shū (“Ancient and Modern Collection��) from two centuries later. Rexroth’s book offers a splendid sample of 100 poems from these massive collections.

It’s best for the poems to speak in their own voices, so here are a few:

The mists rise over
The still pools at Asuka.
Memory does not
Pass away so easily.
~Yamabe No Akahito (along with Hitomaro, Akahito was a principal poet from the �Ѳ��Բ�õ times, both canonized as kasei, “deified poets��)

In the Autumn mountains
The colored leaves are falling.
If I could hold them back,
I could still see her.
~Kakinomoto No Hitomaro (as in the case of Akihoto, only the approximate dates of their lives are known)

Your hair has turned white
While your heart stayed
Knotted against me.
I shall never
Loosen it now.
~this tanka by Hitomaro reminds me of the beautiful bond between the old couple in Ozu’s film Tokyo Story

Imperceptible
It withers in the world,
This flower-like human heart.
~Ono No Komachi (834-880), a poetess, also remembered for her “legendary beauty�� and tragic late life

In the mountain village
The wind rustles the leaves.
Deep in the night, the deer
Cry out beyond the edge of dreams.
~Minamoto No Morotada, 12th century

This is not the moon,
Nor is this the spring,
Of other springs,
And I alone
Am still the same.
~Ariwara No Narihira, 9th century, several No plays are dedicated to this great poet, including Kakitsubata (“Water Iris�� which I also grow in my garden, better known in the West as “Japanese Iris��) that attracted Ezra Pound to translate it

In the eternal
Light of the spring day
The flowers fall away
Like the unquiet heart.
~Ki No Tomonobi, early 10th century, he assisted his uncle Tsurayuki in compiling the Kokin anthology

I do not know
What they are thinking about
In my birthplace, but
I do know that
The flowers still smell the same.
~Ki No Tsurayuki (882-946), compiled Kokin Shū and other collections, also renown for calligraphy (this version is from Rexroth’s alternative translation in the notes)

I also want to add a couple of tankas, translated more literally for study purposes but giving a good sense of the poets�� thoughts, by Arthur Waley in his Japanese Poetry: The 'Uta'. Rexroth highlights this book in his bibliography; it can be borrowed on archive.org.

My existence in the world has been
(As transitory as) the reflection of the moon
Which lodges in water
Gathered in the palm of the hand
(About which one doubts) whether it is there or not.
~another tanka by Tsurayuki, annotated as “the poet’s death-poem��

When evening comes
I will leave the door open beforehand
and (then) wait
For him who said he would come
To meet me in my dreams.
~Ōtomo no Yakamochi (718-785), a likely compiler of the �Ѳ��Բ�õ anthology

Rexroth’s introduction is informative as are his brief biographies of each poet. The poems are presented in his English translation along with their original text in transliteration as well as Japanese characters. In Ken’s hilarious and spot-on words, “Lots of white space here for medicinal purposes.�� :-)