During a visit to Atsuta in the province of Owari[1] some people offered us a boat allowing us to view the December seascape:The
sea grows dark: a duck’s voice faintly
white
Bashō
skewered whale on the grill… and a drink
Tōyō
For
200 years on this mountain I took up the
axe
Tōtō
Acorn-sowing autumn he swept it away
Gōzan[2]
Under
a sinking moon red crossbills traverse the
sky
Tōyō
He carries the dewdrops of a remote province
Bashō[3]
“This
rain is it the tears of my aging
mother?”
Gōzan
One flower blooming: a peony at the window
Tōtō
His
go strategy comes to him two days
later
Bashō
Back in Zhou the cry of a fox
Tōyō[4]
Digging
mushrooms in a dry riverbed, darkness
approaching
Tōtō[5]
Peeled pine timbers: the shrine gateway
Gōzan
Rain-hat
laid out he mends the rips in his
robe
Tōyō
Autumn birds dine at the burial ground
Bashō[6]
A
typhoon on this beach two days ago bright
moon
Gōzan
In mist droplets a dragon is drawn
Tōtō
Blossom
clouds, the stone door is pushed
open
Tōyō
Heat shimmers venerate the beauty’s form
Gōzan
Silent
butterflies and an Ezo bridegroom bemoaning
himself
Bashō[7]
Dried sea slugs even: tears wet his sleeves
Tōtō
Through
the trees to the west a temple’s white
walls
Gōzan
A viny hut in a grove ten-by-ten feet
Bashō
The
lone old man forms little by little an
earthenware pot
Tōtō
Infamous in Kyoto the curse of the bumps
Tōyō
“Fuji’s
peak!” he shouts, in rain-hat on horseback
Bashō[8]
One crane flies off somewhere to sleep?
Gōzan
Awaiting
nightfall at her mirror in light
makeup
Tōyō
The page, hid in her robe, pushes on the bush clover’s
gate
Tōtō
Thin
moon… a clock tolls the hour: two in the
morning
Gōzan
A hurried casket in the fast-dying dew
Bashō
Broken
armor sent back to his homeland
Tōtō
The kingdom of Koguryo: plowing the fields
Tōyō[9]
Chinese
paper dyed lilac scented with
blossoms
Bashō
A companion for long days at the small
shrine
Gōzan
In
the spring shower a new convert approaches
carrying rice cakes Tōyō
Her travel-cloak is wisteria with a young grass pattern
Tōtō[10]
A ward of modern-day Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture.
This is one of the more perplexing verses in the sequence. Literally, “Oak
tree’s seed-sowing autumn (acc.) swept-it”
Literally it says, “a palanquin-less province”
Zhou, the ancient Chinese dynasty (about 1100 BC to 256). Foxes in Chinese and Japanese lore were
often (but not always) shape-shifting tricksters that made a habit out of
seducing men into their downfall.
The link is made by using the Chinese name for the mushroom.
Literally, “autumn birds on their way to eat human.”
Ezo is the old Japanese name for Hokkaido, the northern most island of modern
Japan and also its inhabitants, the Ainu.
Fuji no ne could also possibly mean, “aloeswood root,” a
cure for the bumps, perhaps.
Koguryo was an ancient kingdom of Korea which flourished from 37 BCE to 668 CE.
Travel-cloak (tsubo-ori or tsubo-sōzoku), as described the
‘Clothing and Color’ glossary of Royall Tyler’s translation of the Genji:
deep hat tsubo sōzoku—The attire for a respectable woman outdoors [during
the Heian and Kamakura periods]. She draped an unlined gown over her head and
hair, then put on a deep, broad-brimmed hat. She also hitched up her skirts a
little for walking.
The
original text:
海くれて鴨の声ほのかに白し 翁
串に鯨をあぶる杯 桐葉
二百年吾このやまに斧取り手 東籐
樫のたねまく秋はきにけり 工山
入る月にいすかの鳥のわたるそら 葉
駕籠なき国を露負われ行く 翁
降る雨は老いたる母のなみだかと 山
一輪咲きし芍薬の窓 藤
碁の工夫二日とじたる目を明きて 翁
周にかへると狐なくなり 葉
霊之掘る河原はるかに暮れかかり 藤
鳥居はげたる松の入り口 山
笠敷きて衣のやぶれ綴り居る 葉
あきの鳥の人喰いにゆく 翁
一昨日の野分けの浜は月澄みて 山
霧の雫に竜を書き続ぐ 藤
華曇る石の扉を押しひらき 葉
美人のかたち拝むかげろふ 山
蝦夷の婿声なき蝶と身を侘びて 翁
海鼠干すにも袖はぬれけり 藤
木の間より西に御堂の壁白く 山
藪に葛屋の十ばかり見ゆ 翁
ほつほつと焙烙つくる祖父ひとり 藤
京に名高し瘤の呪ひ 葉
富士の根と笠きて馬に乗りながら 翁
寝に行く鶴のひとつ飛ぶらん 山
待つ暮れに鏡をしのび薄粧ひ 葉
衣かづく小姓萩の戸を推す 藤
月細く時計響き八つなりて 山
棺いそぐ消えがたの露 翁
破れたる具足を国に送りけり 藤
高麗の県に畠作りて 葉
紅粉染めの唐紙に花の香をしぼり 翁
小さき宮の永き日の伽 山
春雨の新発意粽荷ひ来て 葉
青草ちらす藤のつぼ折 藤
All translations ©2007 Sean
Price dr_phinaes@yahoo.com