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 — Spring, March
March 18, 2023
Record and commentary: 河内裕二, Japan Romanticism Academia
The announcement that the cherry blossoms had opened in Tokyo came on March 14, about ten days earlier than usual. Several consecutive days with maximum temperatures above twenty degrees Celsius probably contributed to the early flowering. The succession of warm days had made it feel as though spring had fully arrived, but rain fell on the day of the poetry meeting and the wind was cold. A little chill is bearable if it means we can enjoy the blossoms longer. Will there still be cherry blossom to see at the entrance ceremonies?
The meeting was held at the Miura Workers' Civic Center from 1:30 p.m. on March 18. Those attending were 三宅尚道, president of the Miura Tanka Society; 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 Japan Romanticism Academia; and 岩間滿美子, together with 河内裕二.
Translator's note: the source calls the people preceding the recorder “seven,” although it lists eight names. All listed names are retained here.
包丁を毎日曜日研ぎくれし
夫の心情十年後気づく 由良子
The author is 加藤由良子. Every Sunday after breakfast, her late husband would silently sharpen the kitchen knives, then return to his room when he was finished. She had never particularly noticed this habit. But ten years after his death, looking back over their life together, she realized that it must have been an expression of his love, and made it into a poem.
ぬか床のきゅうりが苦い？宝物
無くしてなるものかと手を入れる 弘子
A poem by 嶋田弘子. She still carefully uses the rice-bran pickling bed inherited from her mother. To her it is a treasure, and the family had always enjoyed its delicious pickles. Then one day the cucumbers tasted bitter. At this rate, the pickling bed would be ruined. Determined not to lose it, she did everything she could and desperately worked to restore it to its former condition. It took about a month, she said.
眼から鼻花粉は来たりくさめする
年中行事の如く始まる 尚道
The author is 三宅尚道. Anyone with hay fever can sympathize with this poem. It is indeed an “annual event”: the suffering returns at the same time every year. 三宅 has apparently had hay fever for twenty years. Hearing that people who have never been troubled can suddenly develop it one day makes someone like me, who does not have it, uneasy. Even if it would let me write a hay-fever poem, I would rather decline to participate in this “annual event.”
在りし日の姿思ひて読むメール
用件のみも言葉優しく 裕二
My own poem. In daily work, most exchanges now take place by email rather than letter. When one needs to check an old message and searches by keyword, unexpected messages may appear alongside the one being sought. The other day, I happened to find an email I had received from someone who has since died. About seven years have passed since that person's death. Reading it while remembering them, I found that it conveyed only the business at hand, yet its wording revealed the character of someone who had always treated me kindly in life.
大阪は見所多しと息子より
行く先々の写メール届く 光枝
The author is 嘉山光枝. Looking at the photographs her son sends from various places in Kansai since his transfer to Osaka makes her feel as though she is traveling. A son wishing to share his pleasure with his mother, and a mother looking forward to the photographs: it is a heartwarming poem.
思ふまま生きられぬとも年嵩ね
なほ迫り来る波迎えなむ 滿美子
The author is 岩間滿美子. Many people who have reached a certain age will surely sympathize with this poem. Does one dodge the approaching waves, or welcome them? Perhaps she composed it in the wish to use the experience of her life so far to “welcome the waves” and live a better life. I would like to do the same.
過し世を知らぬ存ぜぬ子らたちに
慌む思ひを語るも空し 成秋
A work by President Seishu Hamano. The phrase 「慌む思ひ」 refers to the difficult period during and immediately after the war. When he tries to talk to children about it, they respond as though it has nothing to do with them. A reality of the greatest importance to him is merely history to them. History is said to repeat itself; to prevent war from happening again, we need to know what war is. But if people will not listen, there is nothing one can do. He has made that feeling of futility into a poem.
手の切れしヴィトンのバッグが買い取られ
八千円にて娘らとランチす 員子
The author is 羽床員子. The expression 「手の切れし」 means that the bag's handle has broken, not that a relationship has been severed. It is astonishing that a bag in that condition would still be bought for eight thousand yen. Presumably it will be repaired and sold secondhand, but are there really people who want something worn so thoroughly that its handle has snapped?
トンネルを越えれば雪国白銀に
今一度会いたし待つ人なけれど 和子
The author is 清水和子. The opening part calls to mind Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country; the latter part recalls 「いまひとたびのみゆきまたなむ」, the ending of Fujiwara no Tadahira's poem in the Hyakunin Isshu beginning 「小倉山」. It thus sounds familiar in some way, yet the scene rises before one's eyes as though it were a moment in a film. We can also understand the desire to meet again, even when no one is waiting. And although it is March, some mountain areas of the north will still have snow, so there is nothing implausible in regarding this as an actual scene.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter: Japan's four seasons are wonderful. Unlike haiku, which require a seasonal word, tanka need not make seasonality their whole concern. Even so, a sense of the season is an important element that lends a poem color. This time the works by 三宅 and 清水 were seasonal poems. When nature is described, the season appears of itself. Our next meeting is in April. With spring here, how many poems on cherry blossom will be submitted?
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.