21 Classical Tanka
The
21 tanka here have been selected from
three of 21 Japanese Imperial Anthologies: the 1st compiled in 905, the 8th
in 1205 and the 9th in 1235.
They were all written before Archbishop Walter de Grey started the
massive rebuilding scheme around the year 1220 that ultimately led to the
present York Minster.
One
of the female poets here, Ono no Komachi (ca. 850), flourished just before York was
occupied by the Vikings. Monk Saigyo and Fujiwara no Shunzei were in their teens when Fountains Abbey was
founded in 1132. The youngest among the
poets here, Shunzei’s Daughter, might
have seen the first
1
Ono no Komachi
a female poet, ca. 850
Was it because I went to sleep
Thinking always of him
That I caught a glimpse of him?
Had I known it a dream
I would not have awoken.
2
Ono no Komachi
a female poet, ca. 850
When I cannot meet him
On a moonless night
Passion rises within me;
A flame running through my breast
Sets my heart on fire.
3
Ono no Komachi
a female poet, ca. 850
The colour of the cherry
blossom
Has faded in vain
In the long rain
While in idle thoughts
I have spent my life.
4
Fujiwara no Teika
1162 – 1241
Waiting for one who does not come,
Like the seaweed burnt for salt
In the evening calm
At
My body is smouldering
5
Fujiwara no Teika
1162 – 1241
The path at the foot of the mountain
Through which the one I wait for wends his
way
Must by now be blocked.
For, on the cedar by the eaves
The snow is heavy.
6
Fujiwara no Teika
1162 – 1241
The black hair through which
I used to run my hand for her;
Now strand by strand
It rises before my mind
When I lie down alone.
7
Fujiwara no Teika
1162 – 1241
As the floating bridge
Of my spring night dream
Breaks
A bank of clouds parts from the peak
In the dawn sky.
8
Fujiwara no Shunzei
1114 – 1204
In unbearable longing
I look at the sky
Over your dwelling.
The spring rain falls,
Sifted through the haze.
9
Fujiwara no Shunzei
1114 – 1204
To one who rarely comes here
The wind through the pines
Sounds sad at night time.
Does she hear it always
Beneath the moss?
10
Princess Shikishi
1149 – 1201
Deep in the mountains
The pine branch door
Does not feel the coming of spring:
Only the slow dropping of gems
From the melting snow.
11
Fujiwara no Teika
1162 – 1241
On their way home,
On the wings of wild geese
That have drooped
In the turbulent frosty skies,
The spring rain falls.
12
Monk Jakuren
1139? – 1202
As spring passes
I do not know
Where its harbour will be:
A brushwood barge on the River Uji
Falling into the haze.
13
Fujiwara no
Yoshitsune
1169 – 1206
The
Have the dewdrops from the leaves, too,
Changed their colours?
In the grasses beneath the trees
Autumn has deepened.
14
Monk Jakuren
1139? – 1202
The rough winds of autumn
Have laid low the grasses
Where the stag had his bed.
From deep in the mountain
Comes his cry.
15
Monk Saigyo
1118 – 1190
Cricket,
Are you getting weak
As the autumn nights grow cold?
Your cry sounds faint
And becomes more distant.
16
Fujiwara no Teika
1162 – 1241
The autumn wind blows
The traveler’s sleeves inside-out.
The lonely evening sun shines
On a wooden bridge
Clinging to the mountainside.
17
Monk Jakuren
1139? – 1202
The drops from sudden showers
On the leaves of cedar
Are not yet dry
As mists rise through them;
An autumn evening.
18
Shunzei’s Daughter
1171? – 1254
I cannot expect a visitor now.
Autumn has come
Bringing blustering storms,
The grassy path to the house
Buried under dead leaves.
19
Fujiwara no Teika
1162 – 1241
There is not even shelter
To rein in my horse
To shake the snow off my sleeves.
Around the Sano Crossing
On this snowy evening.
20
Princess Shikishi
1149 – 1201
Broken by the sound of the wind
That plays on the bamboo leaves
Near the window
A dream even shorter
Than my fleeting sleep.
21
Monk Saigyo
1118 – 1190
Sending my soul away
To where the moon has sunk
Behind the mountain,
What shall I do with my body
Left in the darkness?
The
21 poems have been selected and newly translated into English by
Dr