Just Living

Poems and Prose of the Japanese Monk Tonna

Tonna, Steven D. Carter, Steven Carter

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9780231500777
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

The medieval Buddhist poet-monk Tonna (1289–1372) was regarded as the leading poet of his day and a prominent scholar and critic. Despite his commoner status, he was assigned the task of acting as compiler for an imperial anthology of poetry and counted a number of prominent courtiers among his students and patrons. And yet his works, which remained required reading for virtually all serious poets in Japan for five hundred years after his death, have until recently received little scholarly attention in either Japan or the West. This anthology contains translations of 134 of Tonna's uta (the classical poetic form) and 16 linked verse couplets (renga) from his Grass Hut Collection and selections from a work of prose criticism, From a Frog at the Bottom of a Well, along with an introduction and explanatory notes, a glossary of important names and places, and a list of sources for the poems.

THE POEMS

1

ON “EARLY SPRING,” FROM THREE POEMS COMPOSED AT THE POETRY BUREAU

In fair Yoshino

the wind low

on the mountain slopes

grows more chilly still;

and half-hidden

in the haze—

fine flakes of falling snow.

miyoshino no / yama no shitakaze / nao saete

kasumigakure ni / awayuki zo furu

2

“PLUM BLOSSOMS BEFORE THE MOON”

Leaving unclosed

my door

of black pine,

I go

to bed for the night,

pillowed on an arm

awash

in plum scent—and light

from the moon.*

maki no to o / sasade nuru yo no / tamakura ni

ume ga ka nagara / tsuki zo utsureru

*An allusive variation on Kokinshū 690, an anonymous poem: Will you come to me / or I to you? I wonder / with the hesitant moon, / and leave unclosed my pine door / to keep watch from my bed (kimi ya komu / ware ya yukamu no / isayoi ni / maki no itado mo / sasazu nenikeri).

3

[ON “WILLOWS”] FROM AMONG THREE POEMS COMPOSED AT THE HOME OF THE NIJŌ LAY-MONK MAJOR COUNSELOR [TAMEYO]

All atangle

in the wind,

but then slowly

after its passing

disentangling on their own—

threads

on the green willows.

fukimidasu / kaze no ato yori / yagate mata

kokoro to tokuru / aoyagi no ito

4

“RETURNING GEESE”

Even in

a world

full of false promises

they will not

forget

their pledge

to come back home—

those geese now flying away.*

itsuwari no / aru yo ni dani mo / furusato no

chigiri wasurezu / kari no yukuran

*Wild geese fly back to the continent each spring, after spending the winter in Japan.

5

“RETURNING GEESE, IN THE HAZE”

Gazing far, I see

haze spreading

into the distance;

but in the gaps,

appearing here

and then there—

wild geese

in one tattered line.

nagamureba / kasumihatete wa / taedae ni

mata arawaruru / kari no hitotsura

6

“BLOSSOMS AT NIGHT”

On a night in spring

the moon

has not emerged yet

above the branches—

where

on the mountain rim

blossoms are first

to appear.*

haru no yo no / tsuki wa konoma o / ideyarade

mazu yama no ha no / hana zo mieyuku

*An allusive variation on Shin gosenshū 323, by Kamo no Ujihisa: On the mountain rim / not yet emerging is the moon / so much awaited; / first to rise into the clear / is the call of a stag (yama no ha ni / mataruru tsuki wa / ideyarade / mazu suminoboru / saoshika no koe).

7

ON “BLOSSOMS AT DAWN,” FROM THREE POEMS COMMISSIONED BY THE UTSUNOMIYA TŌTOMI LAY-MONK RENCHI

It was the dawn

moon

I had been waiting up for—

when in its light

appeared

the first glimpses

of cherry blossoms

on the hills.

machiizuru / ariake no tsuki no / kagenagara

arawaresomuru / yamazakura kana

8

“BLOSSOMS AT AN ANCIENT CAPITAL”

If those many springs

there had been

no blossoms there

to attract men’s eyes,

then how much more

a ruin

would be

the capital at Shiga.*

haru o hete / hana ni hitome no / nokorazu wa

shiga no furusato / nao ya arenan

*Shiga, located near the southern tip of Lake Biwa, had been the site of the capital in the seventh century.

9

ON “THINKING OF BLOSSOMS AT NIGHT,” COMPOSED WHEN THE CHAMBERLAIN-MIDDLE COUNSELOR [TAMEAKIRA] INVITED PE...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents 
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Poems
• From a Frog at the Bottom of a Well : Selections
• Glossary of Important Names and Places
• Sources of the Poems
• Index of First Lines
• Series List