English translation of the prose
AI-assisted English translation of the prose; quoted poems remain in Japanese. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
Originally published: 22 May 2022.
A historical report from the Japanese website. Dates and descriptions reflect the original publication. Quoted poems remain in Japanese.
Japan Romantic Poetry Forum: Spring, Satsuki
Recorded 21 May 2022
Record and commentary: 河内裕二, Japan Romanticism Society
21 May, the day of the gathering, falls at Shoman in the twenty-four solar terms. The Daijisen explains it as the time when flourishing plants begin to fill heaven and earth. Despite intermittent rain, nine people gathered at Miura Workers’ Civic Center at 13:30: 三宅尚道, president of the Miura Tanka Association, 加藤由良子, 嘉山光枝, 嶋田弘子, 清水和子, 羽床員子, Seishu Hamano, president of the Japan Romanticism Society, 岩間滿美子, and 河内裕二. 櫻井艶子 of the Miura association also sent poems.
花終へて赤く色づくさくらんぼ
鳥ついばめば種散乱す 光枝
The poet is 嘉山光枝. The cherries here are the fruit of mountain or Yoshino cherry trees. Birds eat them at this time of year and drop the stones, so she takes care when hanging washing. Whatever changes in society, nature’s activities remain: flowers bloom when their time comes, and birds fly about. That was the feeling behind the poem.
フロントに花びら四、五片はりついて
病院帰りのわれを迎へり 由良子
A work by 加藤由良子. Ear pain worried her, so she went to hospital, where nothing particular was found. The doctor said excessive ear cleaning was unwise. Returning relieved, she found cherry petals stuck to the windscreen. Perhaps they had already been there on the way, but she had no room to notice them until returning. The petals soothed her heart, and she wrote of that relief.
春よ春 驕（おご）れる心はち切（き）れて
上京せしは十八の春 艶子
A work by 櫻井艶子, absent today. She was reportedly a member of the Shochiku Revue, SKD; perhaps this concerns moving to Tokyo after passing an audition. Of the phrase about a proud heart, Kato remarked that being selected from a rural place like Miura to join SKD and go to glamorous Tokyo was remarkable, naturally bringing confidence and a feeling of being chosen. Looking back, why does the poet now regard herself as proud then? It is a pity we cannot ask her. “Spring” appears three times, conveying her joy at the time.
喪中なる我も明るきマニキュアを
つけて歩めば足取り軽し 員子
The poet is 羽床員子. Six months have passed since her husband died. To brighten a dark, sinking heart, she wears bright nail polish and colorful clothes. Everyone sympathized with the poem.
初孫の初給料のお誘いは
大好物のあんかけうどん 弘子
A poem by 嶋田弘子. One reading conveys her delight. We often hear of children doing something for parents with their first pay; a grandchild doing so must bring still greater joy. She loves ankake udon at a regular restaurant, and her grandchild remembered and invited her when the first salary arrived. Shimizu found it endearing that the treat was familiar ankake udon rather than something expensive and pretentious. The poem enfolds readers as well as its author in happiness.
汝（な）が庵（いほ）は仮寝の宿よと天の声
されど衾（ふすま）はやはらか温（ぬく）きぞ 成秋
The poet is President Seishu Hamano. The “voice of heaven” is another voice within himself, whispering that the warm bedding in which he sleeps each night is only temporary lodging, while the place of his eventual long sleep will be cold. Such feelings come from being frail and conscious of death since childhood, and from leaving his birthplace to seek somewhere to live while worrying about his parents. Even in his present comfortable home, he feels that his dwelling is only a temporary bed. Perhaps the heart of someone following literature is like an eternal traveler, never settling securely.
見つめたるわれの視線を感じてや
雲に隠れし春の夜の月 裕二
My poem. Looking up on the way home from work, I can see stars and the moon on clear nights. Stars do not change, but the moon changes its expression each time—sometimes sad, sometimes strong. When I recently felt low, the moon looked gentle and beautiful, but after I watched for a while it disappeared behind clouds, as though embarrassed by my gaze. I wrote recalling that night’s moon.
A participant noted a resemblance to Murasaki Shikibu’s poem in the Hyakunin Isshu. Now that it was mentioned, it did resemble the latter half, 雲隠れにし夜半の月かな, to some extent. But I had simply described the moon disappearing into clouds, without consciously recalling it.
杜若池端（かきつばたいけはた）に立つ人影の
業平に似て憂いを誘う 滿美子
A work by 岩間滿美子, drawn from visiting the Nezu Museum’s special exhibition “A Tea Gathering with the Irises Screens.” When irises bloom, she thinks of Ariwara no Narihira, regarded as the protagonist of The Tales of Ise. After viewing Korin Ogata’s famous irises screens, she walked in the museum garden, where irises really were blooming beside the pond. A man stood there. The scene suggested Narihira viewing beautiful irises at Yatsuhashi in Mikawa and composing his iris poem.
That poem is the following homesick verse, whose phrase openings spell ka-ki-tsu-ba-ta:
唐衣きつつなれにしつましあれば
はるばる来ぬる旅をしぞ思ふ 業平
誰も来ぬ一日なれど裏山に
来たる狸を猫に教はる 尚道
A poem by 三宅尚道. If this is an actual event, the raccoon dog, being nocturnal, probably arrived as a day without visitors was ending. In Japanese folktales it appears as an animal that tricks people. Recently it seems unwelcome for damaging crops, but I mostly see Shigaraki pottery figures rather than real animals, and arbitrarily give it a comic, positive image. The cat may have disliked its arrival from wariness, but perhaps the poet felt a little glad that even a raccoon dog had come.
ビートルズ流して飛ばした第三京浜
あの頃のわたし何着てたっけ 和子
The poet is 清水和子. Recently she had eye trouble and surgery, with few pleasant experiences and no poems coming to mind. Then this suddenly appeared. She does not know why this poem, but often recalls youth; perhaps that is what aging means, she said.
She clearly remembers the music and surrounding scenery, but not herself. Although she loves clothes, she cannot recall what she wore. Even I might think of the first half, which could be a popular song lyric. The second is uniquely Shimizu’s expression and would never come to me.
Miyake’s statement that tanka conveys emotion without stating it directly stayed with me. When I had just begun and struggled to compose, President Hamano said the same thing. I then thought it meant writing fiction rather than an academic paper, which weighed on me as a literary researcher. But reading predecessors and learning at gatherings, I feel I have gradually grasped something of the method. Still, I need much more practice before poems arise naturally as they do for Shimizu.
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.