English translation of the prose
AI-assisted English translation of the prose; quoted poems remain in Japanese. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
Originally published:
This material was published on the Japanese website. Dates and notices in the text reflect the original publication.
This is a prose translation. Eleven tanka and the quoted kouta lyrics remain in Japanese.
Romantic Poetry Forum: Spring, March 2022
Recorded March 19, 2022
Record and commentary: 河内裕二, Japan Romanticism Society
On March 19, when the coming of spring could be felt, a joint meeting of the Miura Tanka Society and the Japan Romanticism Society was held from 1:30 p.m. at the Miura Working Citizens' Center. Present from the Miura Tanka Society were seven people: President 三宅尚道, 加藤由良子, 嘉山光枝, 櫻井艶子, 嶋田弘子, 清水和子 and 羽床員子. From the Japan Romanticism Society came President 濱野成秋, 岩間滿美子 and 河内裕二. 玉榮良江 of the Miura Tanka Society also submitted a poem.
早咲きの桜まつりの取り止めも
人出は多く桜満開 光枝
The author is 嘉山光枝. The Kawazu cherry-blossom festival was cancelled because of the coronavirus for the second year running. Even when a festival is cancelled, the cherries bloom, and when they bloom people gather. There were many people when 嘉山 went, and she says she had to make her way through the crowd.
高齢の姉の誘いで梅見の会
思い出話し亡き兄若し 由良子
A work by 加藤由良子. In her older sister's garden stands a plum tree planted by their late brother when he was young. This poem comes from a time when they looked at its blossoms and reminisced about him. 加藤 said that putting her feelings into thirty-one characters was difficult, but the latter part conveys them fully.
北条の剛し女子を想はせて
梅花流るる鎌倉の春 成秋
The author is President 濱野成秋. Here 「春」 does not indicate a season but a spring landscape. Kamakura is a town of kept mistresses: in spring men go to their separate residences seeking young women, and wives become angry demons. President 濱野 referred to the Edo kouta 「春風がそよそよと」.
春風がそよそよと 福は内へと この宿へ
鬼は外へと 梅が香 添ゆる
雨か 雪か ままよ ままよ
今夜も明日の晩も 居続けしょ 生姜酒
If the poem was composed with a scene like this kouta in mind, the man is 頼朝, the woman his beloved mistress 亀の前, and the demon 政子. In her anger, 政子 even caused an incident in which 亀の前 was attacked. This is not merely a poem about spring, but one about Kamakura's history.
枕辺に『三浦うた紀行』最期まで
置きて逝きしと身内に聞けり 尚道
The author is 三宅尚道. An elegy for 笹本朝子, who participated in the Miura Tanka Society from its early days and died last year. The society began in Shōwa 22, 1947, and has a seventy-five-year history. 『三浦うた紀行』 is 三宅's poetry collection.
「いいことない？」「何もないのがいいことよ！」
青日の談斯く沁みる今 弘子
A work by 嶋田弘子. 「青日」 means youthful days. A casual conversation exchanged out of boredom when young now seems entirely true. She says that 「斯く」 in 「斯く沁みる」 expresses the feeling that it really is this way.
みちのくの海傾きて斃れける
命のもとにも春は来るらむ 裕二
My own work: a poem to console the spirits of the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. 「海傾きて」 refers to the tsunami and is an expression found in 鴨長明's 『方丈記』.
春の野に若草色や心浮き
何とは当ての無き身なれども 滿美子
The author is 岩間滿美子. Looking out of the window, she saw spring orchids growing in a beautiful young-grass green. Captivated, she felt romantic. Spring does not necessarily bring some particular event, yet the heart still rises. She says she wrote of that feeling.
亡き夫と約束したる「湯楽の里」
親族と連れたち朝風呂に入る 員子
A poem by 羽床員子. 「湯楽の里」 is a hot-spring facility in Yokosuka. Once, passing it on work with her husband, they had said they would like to bathe there sometime. She wrote about visiting that hot spring.
戻らずにじっと海見る鳥一羽
ああ、日が落ちる一緒に見ましょう 和子
The author is 清水和子. From her room she often watches birds perched on the roof. She finds it curious that they all face the sea rather than the hills, and that at dusk exactly one always remains. Watching them almost as a daily routine made the birds seem like friends, she says, and gave rise to the poem.
一ツずつ重荷下しつ黄昏の
時を歩みて父母の影みゆ 艶子
The author is 櫻井艶子. It is the fourth year since her husband's death. “I suppose I ought really to picture my husband's face,” she said with a laugh. For some reason, there are times when she thinks of her parents more than her husband. Others who have lost a spouse say it is the same for them, not only 櫻井. Is blood thicker than water?
外出のままにならない家猫は
くしゃみ激しき抱きて歩めば 良江
The author is 玉榮良江, absent today. Does this mean that an indoor cat sneezed when taken outside? If the sneezing was severe, it might have been hay fever, since dogs and cats apparently suffer from it too.
This meeting prompted me to think about methods using conversational expression, such as the poems by 嶋田 and 清水. Both make good use of the strengths of colloquial speech. For me, literary language feels more fitting for tanka. When I first read the very colloquial poems of 俵万智's 『サラダ記念日』, I felt something incongruous. Today it is no longer unusual for all thirty-one characters of a poem to be conversation. I still resist such extremely colloquial poetry. This time, however, the two poems taught me how conversation creates immediacy and feeling, widening a work's world. Depending on its use, colloquial language can have depth. I found myself wanting to try it.
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.