Japanese Poetry

*Geeks*

So, one of my favorite poems I have encountered in Japanese literature (I first read this sophomore year in Classical Literature class) is by Ariwara no Narihira, famous poet of the ancient Kokinshuu poetry anthology (and a crazy ninja lover, according to Jessy). As with a lot of the Kokinshuu poems, the "title" provides context and is often longer than the poem itself. (Think Victor Hugo, and some of his "In which a coin drops off a bureau and makes a noise"-type titles).

Title: Without premeditation, Narihira begins a brief but passionate love affair with a woman residing in the western wing of Lady Gojo's palace. Shortly after January 10th, she left without a word to him. He learned where she had gone, but it was impossible to reach her. In the spring of the following year, when the plum blossoms were at their prime and the moon was shining beautifully, memories of the year before drew him back to her old room. He lied on the floor of the room until the moon sunk low from the sky.

月やあらぬ
春や昔の
春ならぬ
わが身ひとつは
もとの身にして

Tsuki ya aranu
Haru ya mukashi no
Haru naranu
Waga mi hitotsu wa
Moto no mi ni shite

Translated something like:
"Is this the same moon?
Is this the same spring
As the old spring?
Myself alone
Am the same as before."

I used it as an AIM profile quote for a few months earlier this summer, actually, lol.

So I got really excited when, while doing my translation homework for Japanese, it showed up as one of the poems we had to translate. It took me a moment to realize what it was, because I had to translate that damn long contextual "title" first. Then I got really excited and now I am going to ask if I can translate it in class because 1) it is my favorite and 2) none of the others made for very clean translations this time anyway, lol.

I'd actually formulated a response to the poem a while back. It's part of the Japanese poetry canonical tradition to write responses to poems, be they famous or just written by the guy next to you at a poetry-party. (Yes, they had those). So, since I've been studying premodern Japanese, and this seemed like a sign, I tried my hand at writing it:

月ぞあらぬ
春ぞ昔の
春ならぬ
年が経れば
身さへ変わりぬ

Tsuki zo aranu
Haru zo mukashi no
Haru naranu
Toshi ga hereba
Mi sae kawarinu

The translation of which is roughly:
"This is not the same moon.
This is not the same spring
As the old spring.
And since a year has passed,
Even your self has changed."

I'm not sure about one of the verbs, since I looked it up in the dictionary (it's supposedly the verb for "to pass" in regards to time, but . . . yeah, dictionaries) and I might have messed up the form of the final verb, but our own Premodern Japanese professor says she would never in a million years ever make us write in ancient Japanese, so it's not like I'm expected to ever be successful at this, lol. It's just for fun.

But I am proud of how I took the features of the original poem and messed with them just enough to set up the clear reference to the original poem (so popular in Japanese poetry responses), and did so just by changing a question particle into an empathatic particle . . . *Geek happy.* Maybe you need to know a little about premodern Japanese (or generally linguistics?) to feel where I'm coming from, but . . . lol.

As for the topic . . . In a way, it's really simplistic-- and maybe even terse, just contradicting what he says. And that's sort of the trouble with waka; you only get so much room. I would love to toss a Buddhist wrench in there about how nothing stays the same, and everything is a state of becoming and unbecoming, maybe reference those plum blossoms, lol . . . So maybe I'll mess around with it some more and make a second edition sometime. It's got potential.

The point will stay the same, however. The point that even he has changed without realizing it actually bears huge personal significance to me. And actually is highly relevant to some events that have transpired in the past 24 hours.

Yea poetry.

Edit (11:23): Oh double fucking whoa. I just realized it was exactly a year ago I put on my computer the Japanese font that allows me to post these Japanese poems, and also the last time I wrote a poem in English. (But don't go back and try to read it; it's a private entry, and it's staying that way, lol). Weird.

Japanese Poetry

*Geeks*

So, one of my favorite poems I have encountered in Japanese literature (I first read this sophomore year in Classical Literature class) is by Ariwara no Narihira, famous poet of the ancient Kokinshuu poetry anthology (and a crazy ninja lover, according to Jessy). As with a lot of the Kokinshuu poems, the "title" provides context and is often longer than the poem itself. (Think Victor Hugo, and some of his "In which a coin drops off a bureau and makes a noise"-type titles).

Title: Without premeditation, Narihira begins a brief but passionate love affair with a woman residing in the western wing of Lady Gojo's palace. Shortly after January 10th, she left without a word to him. He learned where she had gone, but it was impossible to reach her. In the spring of the following year, when the plum blossoms were at their prime and the moon was shining beautifully, memories of the year before drew him back to her old room. He lied on the floor of the room until the moon sunk low from the sky.

月やあらぬ
春や昔の
春ならぬ
わが身ひとつは
もとの身にして

Tsuki ya aranu
Haru ya mukashi no
Haru naranu
Waga mi hitotsu wa
Moto no mi ni shite

Translated something like:
"Is this the same moon?
Is this the same spring
As the old spring?
Myself alone
Am the same as before."

I used it as an AIM profile quote for a few months earlier this summer, actually, lol.

So I got really excited when, while doing my translation homework for Japanese, it showed up as one of the poems we had to translate. It took me a moment to realize what it was, because I had to translate that damn long contextual "title" first. Then I got really excited and now I am going to ask if I can translate it in class because 1) it is my favorite and 2) none of the others made for very clean translations this time anyway, lol.

I'd actually formulated a response to the poem a while back. It's part of the Japanese poetry canonical tradition to write responses to poems, be they famous or just written by the guy next to you at a poetry-party. (Yes, they had those). So, since I've been studying premodern Japanese, and this seemed like a sign, I tried my hand at writing it:

月ぞあらぬ
春ぞ昔の
春ならぬ
年が経れば
身さへ変わりぬ

Tsuki zo aranu
Haru zo mukashi no
Haru naranu
Toshi ga hereba
Mi sae kawarinu

The translation of which is roughly:
"This is not the same moon.
This is not the same spring
As the old spring.
And since a year has passed,
Even your self has changed."

I'm not sure about one of the verbs, since I looked it up in the dictionary (it's supposedly the verb for "to pass" in regards to time, but . . . yeah, dictionaries) and I might have messed up the form of the final verb, but our own Premodern Japanese professor says she would never in a million years ever make us write in ancient Japanese, so it's not like I'm expected to ever be successful at this, lol. It's just for fun.

But I am proud of how I took the features of the original poem and messed with them just enough to set up the clear reference to the original poem (so popular in Japanese poetry responses), and did so just by changing a question particle into an empathatic particle . . . *Geek happy.* Maybe you need to know a little about premodern Japanese (or generally linguistics?) to feel where I'm coming from, but . . . lol.

As for the topic . . . In a way, it's really simplistic-- and maybe even terse, just contradicting what he says. And that's sort of the trouble with waka; you only get so much room. I would love to toss a Buddhist wrench in there about how nothing stays the same, and everything is a state of becoming and unbecoming, maybe reference those plum blossoms, lol . . . So maybe I'll mess around with it some more and make a second edition sometime. It's got potential.

The point will stay the same, however. The point that even he has changed without realizing it actually bears huge personal significance to me. And actually is highly relevant to some events that have transpired in the past 24 hours.

Yea poetry.

Edit (11:23): Oh double fucking whoa. I just realized it was exactly a year ago I put on my computer the Japanese font that allows me to post these Japanese poems, and also the last time I wrote a poem in English. (But don't go back and try to read it; it's a private entry, and it's staying that way, lol). Weird.