English translation of the prose
AI-assisted English translation of the prose; quoted poems remain in Japanese. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
Originally published: 8 March 2021.
A historical report from the Japanese website. The concluding invitation and fees belong to 2021 and are not current event or membership guidance. Quoted poems remain in Japanese.
Japan Romantic Poetry Forum: Winter, Kisaragi
Recorded 27 February 2021
Record and commentary: 河内裕二, Japan Romanticism Society
After a spell like spring, the weather returned to midwinter cold. The expression “three cold days, four warm” is apt. The sky was clear but the wind still cold. At 13:30 on 27 February, the Miura Tanka Association and Japan Romanticism Society met at Miura Workers’ Civic Center. From Miura came president 三宅尚道, 加藤由良子, 嘉山光枝, 嶋田弘子, and 玉榮良江; from our Society, President Seishu Hamano and 河内裕二. Miura members 桜井艶子 and 清水和子 also sent poems.
初春に涙腺ゆるむ孫の書く
はねだしそうな「新たな決意」 由良子
Seeing a grandchild’s calligraphy and its expansive strokes unexpectedly brought tears, said the poet, 加藤由良子: lately even such things open her tear ducts. That is proof of happiness. A grandchild growing vigorously and a grandmother watching warmly made all participants feel warm too. Everyone praised the choice はねだしそうな, seeming about to leap out.
「歩いてる？」娘に訊かれ生返事
愛犬逝きて運動不足 光枝
The evasive half-answer to a daughter is endearing, but also conveys loneliness after losing a beloved dog. Until the dog died last year, walks were a daily routine. At the appointed time it would demand to go, unable to wait. That scene too comes to mind.
Bokusui Wakayama has this poem:
枯草にわが寝て居ればあそばむと
来て顔のぞき眼をのぞく犬 牧水
I do not keep a dog, but looking at owners I often feel that the dog holds the initiative. Is it my imagination?
アネモネは信仰の花 花言葉
「信じ従ふ」ラジオより聞く 尚道
The poet, 三宅尚道, explained that the biblical injunction to look at the flowers of the field is said to refer to anemones. A radio program introduces a flower and its meaning each day; an anemone day prompted the poem, characteristic of the Christian Miyake. Looking into it, red anemones apparently symbolize Christ’s Passion. In Greek mythology, the blood of Adonis, beloved by Aphrodite, became anemones.
I found the poem prose-like, and Miyake too felt something did not fit. We exchanged frank opinions. When discussion stalled, Hamano timed a humorous allusive variation perfectly, imagining a loving wife addressing her husband with a touch of irony:
ナルシスは夜更けの花よあなたなら
アネモネのごと信仰一途に 成秋
This single poem instantly relaxed the atmosphere.
お水取り越えねば春は来ぬといふ
母の冬里思へば幾歳 成秋
Omizutori identifies the winter homeland as Nara, where Hamano’s mother came from. She often said that spring would not come until Omizutori was over. Hearing how deeply cold Nara’s basin becomes made sense even to me, unfamiliar with its winter. 古里 or 故郷 alone would not convey the cold.
His regret at long neglecting even his mother’s birthplace arises from deep love for her. Kenkichi Nakamura also wrote of Omizutori:
時雨して奈良はさむけれ御水取
なほ二月堂に行を終らざる 憲吉
It too says spring cannot come before the ceremony ends, but is realistic beside Hamano’s expression of feeling for his mother.
Her actual winter homeland was Kume in Kashihara, famous for Kume the immortal, who fell while flying by supernatural power after seeing a young woman’s legs. Hearing that gave me sudden affection for the place. What an amusing immortal.
西の空父母の顔あり悔ゆるのみ
八十路往く身に老いのしかかる 艶子
A work by 桜井艶子, absent today. Looking back, perhaps she now keenly feels her parents’ importance, with gratitude and regret at not having shown more filial devotion. Participants said they understood well.
Sakurai is from Irifune in Misaki and is Kato’s childhood friend. Kato said her father had been a prefectural assembly member and her mother worked hard supporting him; perhaps those figures return to her.
The western sky probably means the Western Pure Land. A prominent explanation for placing it in the west is that sun and moon set there, so everything finally returns west. Seeing a beautiful sunset, anyone might imagine a pure land beyond. As I thought this, we moved to the next poem, about sunset—my own.
冬夕焼赤く染めたる故郷の
夕べの雲はどこへ向かふや 裕二
The location prompted discussion. Where is the poet? Has he returned home, or is he thinking of home? Is the sunset there or where he now lives? Both readings emerged, and I was asked which was intended.
The debate over whether Saisei Muro wrote his poem beginning ふるさとは遠きにありて思ふもの while at home briefly crossed my mind. As author, however, I deliberately allowed either reading and said either was fine. People have personal images of sunset. When I said those I see in Tokyo are orange, everyone said Miura’s are bright red. Hamano said that the scene in “Yuyake Koyake” was in Ongata, Hachioji, where it can no longer be seen; recently seeing the sun set in Miura, he felt it survived here. Kayama recommended sunset over Moroiso Bay as the most beautiful. The conversation became lively.
Words for winter sunset include 冬夕焼, 寒夕焼, 冬茜, and 寒茜. I hesitated between 冬夕焼 and 冬茜, favoring the latter’s clear sequence of sounds. Hamano noted Princess Nukata’s famous Man’yoshu poem containing あかね:
あかねさす紫野行き標野行き
野守は見ずや君が袖振る 額田王
He pointed out that one interpretation places this in moonlight, so あかね need not mean sunset. Considering also that 冬茜 is little used and might be unclear, I chose 冬夕焼.
愛すれど猫は巧みに家を出で
畑や山をグルグル回る 良江
The house cat sometimes seizes an opening to escape, sending the poet searching and keeping her at its mercy. Recently she searched for five hours.
The somewhat comic second half, circling fields and hills, skillfully expresses the cat’s freedom and complete disregard for its owner, almost seeming to mock humans. Exasperating though it is, cat lovers probably find that irresistible.
いにしえの塚の遺れる丘に立ち
時の動きを中宙に視ゆ 弘子
The poet, Shimada, rents a field on a hill with fine views above Miura’s crematorium. Nearby are the Thirteen Mounds. She heard that they mark thirteen retainers of Miura Dosun, who died there watching Arai Castle burn. The castle fell in 1516; defeated by the Hojo, the Miura clan perished.
The sky she saw from the mound-covered hill was very beautiful. Surely the retainers who took their lives also saw a beautiful sky. Feeling that the sky stays the same while time changes, she composed this.
Hearing her account, we decided to try visiting the Thirteen Mounds together after the next gathering. The Miura Peninsula has many historical sites. Hamano recently found a wartime site: a hangar for Shinyo boats of the naval surface suicide-attack force, down a coastal cliff near Cainz Home’s Miura store. He explained that the nearby hills also held a Zero-fighter base during the war.
”推し“などと粋な言葉を使われて
吾人はたじろぎ若者を見る 和子
A work by 清水和子, again absent because her residence did not permit outings. Miyake explained that it responds to Rin Usami’s Oshi, Moyu (2020), winner of the 164th Akutagawa Prize.
Usami is currently a twenty-one-year-old university student; Shimizu, I am told, is ninety-one, a large age gap. Young people often use 推し for an idol they support, considerably broadening its meaning—or perhaps more accurately shortening 一推しアイドル. Dictionary-wise, 推し means one’s top recommendation, so its use alone should scarcely cause one to recoil.
Of the title’s two words, 燃ゆ seems harder than 推し. Here it means becoming the subject of an online storm. Since the poem says “推し and the like,” perhaps the whole expression 推し、燃ゆ unsettled her. It is a pity we cannot ask.
The novel’s protagonist is reportedly a high-school girl devoting herself passionately to supporting a favorite idol. Then what of this different use of 燃ゆ?
真昼日のひかり青きに燃えさかる
炎か哀しわが若さ燃ゆ 牧水
Afterward we moved to a café called Coffee Shop Key for tea and conversation. By the time we left, a winter sunset filled the western sky. It had been a fulfilling day. Unfortunately, today it was not as red as everyone had described.
On the way home, the song “Yuyake Koyake” came unconsciously to mind as I watched the sunset. Why not my own winter-sunset poem? I clearly still have much training to do as a poet.
Historical notice: next joint gathering
The next gathering is on 27 March at 11:00, with new participants and a cherry-blossom-viewing meal. Venue: Deguchiso guesthouse in Misaki, Miura; telephone 042-881-4778, as printed in the source. Locally renowned seafood will be served. The day’s fee is ¥3,300. Those wishing to join should contact President Seishu Hamano at [email protected] or 090-2735-7495. Annual membership fee: ¥5,000.
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.