English translation of the prose
AI-assisted English translation of the prose; quoted poems remain in Japanese. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
Japan Romanticism Poetry Circle — Summer, June
Recorded June 19, 2021
Record and commentary: 河内裕二, Japan Romanticism Academia
It rained on the day of the meeting. Since the start of the rainy season in Kantō had been announced a few days earlier, rain was only to be expected. In fact, the continuing rain makes one feel that June has arrived. Plum is a spring seasonal word, so why are the rains of June written with the characters for “plum rain”? And why are those characters read tsuyu? Curious, I consulted a dictionary. The connection was with the fruit, not the blossom. Rain falling when plums ripen was apparently called “plum rain” in China's Yangtze River basin, and the expression is said to have reached Japan in the Edo period. There are other theories, however. In Japan, rain at this time of year was originally called samidare, “fifth-month rain.” The reading tsuyu also has various proposed origins: tsuyu, for plums ripening and collapsing; or tsuhiyu, for things being spoiled by mold. In short, no one knows for certain. The rainy season began about a week later than usual this year. When will it end?
This joint meeting of the Miura Tanka Society and Japan Romanticism Academia was held at the Miura Workers' Civic Center from 1:30 p.m. on June 19. From the Miura Tanka Society came its president, 三宅尚道, and the three members 加藤由良子, 嘉山光枝, and 嶋田弘子. From Japan Romanticism Academia came President Seishu Hamano and 河内裕二. The four Miura Tanka Society members 桜井艶子, 清水和子, 玉榮良江, and 田所晴美 also sent poems.
東海の益荒男成りしマスターズ
亡き夫ならばいかに思ふや 由良子
The author is 加藤由良子. Hideki Matsuyama became the first Japanese golfer to win the Masters, one of golf's major tournaments. Her late husband loved golf. Had he been alive to hear of this achievement, how delighted he would have been. She composed this poem while the golf news brought him to mind.
Recently, Japanese athletes such as Ohtani in baseball and Osaka in tennis have appeared at the world's forefront, but for a long time Japanese competitors found it difficult to excel in sport, perhaps because of differences in physique. There was a so-called “world barrier.” According to 加藤, this barrier was particularly high in men's golf. Many leading Japanese players had challenged it, but none had won a major, and victory at the Masters had long been a cherished wish in the men's golf world.
ワクチンの接種予約は成功も
スマホ操作に奮闘五時間 光枝
The author, 嘉山光枝, had great difficulty booking a vaccination appointment. She said the telephone lines were so busy that she could never get through. She therefore tried booking online with her smartphone, but unfamiliar operations and glitches meant it took five hours to finish.
In this poem, “five hours” is particularly excellent. To give the final phrase a sharp finish, one would choose a number pronounced in one beat. Among two, four, five, and nine, nine would plainly be too long a period. The next longest, the odd number five, is probably best. This is my personal impression, but even numbers seem steadier and gentler than odd ones. The odd number “five,” combined with the word for struggling, skillfully evokes anxiety and irritation in confronting an unfamiliar task.
コンビニの防犯カメラに燕の巣
親鳥ひたすら餌をはこびくる 尚道
A work by 三宅尚道, based on a scene he actually saw. Everyone has probably seen a swallow's nest at least once, but surely not one on top of a security camera. President Hamano commented: “It is very interesting that swallows build their nest quite unconcerned on a device humans install because they distrust other members of their own species—as though laughing at humanity.”
くちびるや歯牙にまとひし言の葉を
秋風に舞ふ瞳に告げをり 成秋
A work by President Seishu Hamano. This poem alludes to the following haiku by Matsuo Bashō.
物いへば唇寒し秋の風 芭蕉
According to President Hamano, Bashō explains in the headnote that unnecessary words invite trouble, so one should take care when speaking. He said he was disappointed that a figure revered as the saint of haiku should use poetry to preach such ordinary everyday morality. Surely literature consists in laying oneself bare.
People sometimes want to criticize others, but usually, as the poem's expression 「まとひし」 suggests, they do not give those words voice. Does that mean they do not criticize? No. As the saying goes, the eyes speak as eloquently as the mouth: without speaking aloud, they accuse through their eyes. He explained that the poem asks the reader to look at this unpleasant aspect of his own heart. Participants agreed that people do indeed speak with their eyes and suggested that this tendency might be particularly strong among Japanese people.
スーパーの入口にある貼り紙に
「トンビに注意」今日は梅雨入り 良江
The author is 玉榮良江, absent today. I could not ask her directly, so I do not know the background, but she presumably saw such a notice in reality. Kites are apparently common in Miura, yet their conjunction with a supermarket is unexpected. Perhaps it made so strong an impression that she turned it into a poem.
夕空に生気みなぎる点描画
騎虎の勢ひむくどりの群れ 裕二
My own work. Every year at this time, flocks of starlings arrive around the station in the town where I live. Their numbers are astonishing; their calls are so loud that one cannot even hear people speaking. When something prompts them all to take flight, they wheel right and left. It looks like a gigantic pointillist painting in motion, overwhelming in its force. 嘉山, who had actually seen such a flock, said it was exactly as in this poem.
小雨降るブーゲンビルに鎮魂す
万葉の歌父と捧げん 弘子
The author is 嶋田弘子. I had often heard of Guadalcanal as a scene of fierce fighting in the Pacific War, but this was my first encounter with Bougainville, also in the Solomon Islands. Her father had been on Bougainville during the war. He died without visiting it afterward, but she thought he must have wished to return. About twelve years ago, therefore, she made a memorial journey to the island, intending to go together with her father's spirit. This is a poem from that journey. The “Man'yō song” probably refers to Umi Yukaba, whose words were taken from a poem by Ōtomo no Yakamochi in the Man'yōshū.
九時に寝る忙しき頃の夢を見て
五時四〇分 今日も日曜 和子
A poem by 清水和子. Since she was absent today, we could not ask her about it in detail. Does the very precise time of 5:40 have a special meaning? In her busy years she went to bed at nine and rose early the next morning. Perhaps this records an actual experience of dreaming about those days and waking at 5:40 even though she no longer needs to get up early.
木漏れ陽の光鋭く空を裂く
心ふるえる白内障オペ 艶子
A work by 桜井艶子, absent today. 三宅, who has undergone cataract surgery, said that he understood such phrases as 「光鋭く」 very well. According to her friend 加藤, 桜井 had her operation the day before the meeting, which means the poem was written before surgery. Words such as filtered sunlight and sky, whose associations do not immediately overlap with an operation, are combined with words such as sharpness and splitting to connect their imagery to the surgery in the latter part. This is a careful device that brings the whole together.
クラス会年重ねたる老の身を
忘れ乙女にもどるひと時 晴美
A poem by 田所晴美, a friend of 加藤. She lives in Chiba and cannot easily attend meetings in Miura, so she participated by sending a poem. Does not everyone who attends a class reunion experience the way all the participants return to their former selves? It is a wonderful poem anyone can sympathize with, almost making us hear the happy laughter of the reunion.
Once again, I learned much from everyone's poems. In particular, reading 嶋田's poem, with its feelings for her father and its thoughts of war and peace, made me feel that I, who have lived as though peace were a matter of course, and the still younger generations must not allow the memory of war to fade. I recalled how the present Emperor Emeritus and Emperor say in their addresses at memorial ceremonies for the war dead, “Looking back on the past, reflecting upon it, and wishing that war will never be repeated.” Today's meeting was fulfilling once again.
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.