Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each): Poem 55 (Fujiwara no Kinto)

  Hyakunin Isshu, Poem 55

Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)

the sound of the waterfall
    has ceased, and that
in the distant past,
    but its very name flows on
    and can still be heard

taki no oto wa
taete hisashiku
narinuredo
na koso nagarete
nao kikoe kere   

滝の音は
絶えて久しく
なりぬれど
名こそ流れて
なほ聞えけれ

Fujiwara no Kinto 藤原公任 (966-1041)

[Daikakuji in Kyoto, overlooking the Osawa Pond]

The head note in the Shuishu says that this poem was composed on the subject of an old waterfall, when Fujiwara no Kinto went on an excursion to Daikakuji Temple and the Osawa Pond in Kyoto.

Notes

• taete: the sound the falling water breaks off - in other words, the waterfall has run dry.
• hisashiku narinuredo: the suffix "nu" indicates completion. "do" is a concessive particle, "although it has lasted for a long time".
• na koso nagarete: "na" = fame. "nagarete" of fame means "to spread" but is here also an engo for the flow of the waterfall.
• nao kikoekere: "hyoban wa ima mo mimi ni hairu". "kikoekere" is also an engo for the sound of the waterfall. "kere" (keri) here indicates a feeling of surprise.
  
  
  
  [Stone marking the site of the now dry Nakoso Waterfall]
  
  
  

The poem uses the conceit of a small waterfall at the side of Osawa Pond (near Daikakuji Temple, west of Kyoto) that apparently had stopped flowing long before the poet's time - if it ever did flow - but which is still known by name. Also today only a few stones in the grass indicate where once its supposedly tumultuous waters rushed into the pond. Thanks to the poem, the dry waterfall was named "Nakoso" Falls, "na koso" meaning "its very name", a phrase from the poem. The poem is probably an allegory on the transience of human fame: but long after the poet has died and become dry dust, thanks to his poems his name will still flow on (into this very post).

[Daikakuji temple]

The Poet

Fujiwara no Kinto was an admired poet, calligrapher and a court bureaucrat of the Heian period. He was the grandson of Tadahira (poem 26) and the father of Sadayori (poem 64). His father was the regent Fujiwara no Yoritada. He is mentioned in works by Murasaki Shikibu, Sei Shonagon and in a number of other major chronicles and texts. Besides being an excellent poet in his own right (89 of his poems have been included in imperial anthologies and there is also a personal collection), Kinto also wrote several important poetic treatises, established the grouping of "Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses," and edited poetry collections as the Shuishu (Kinto's Shui Sho in fact formed the basis of this third imperial anthology) and the Wakan roeishu (Collection of Japanese and Chinese Poems for Singing). This last anthology contains 588 Chinese poems by both Chinese and Japanese poets (such as the in Japan beloved Bai Juyi), as well as 216 waka poems.

[Osawa Pond in winter]

Shuishu (Shui Wakashu)

The Shuishu (拾遺和歌集, "Collection of Gleanings"), 20 scrolls, 1,351 poems, was ordered by ex-Emperor Kazan, and completed between 1005 and 1007. The details of its publication and compilation are unclear. The Shuishu was an expansion of Fujiwara no Kinto's earlier anthology, the Shuisho ("Selection of Gleanings"), compiled between 996 and 999. Until the early nineteenth century, it was mistakenly believed that the Shuisho was a selection of the best poems from the Shuishu, and so the former was more highly regarded. With the Kokinshu and Gosenshu, the Shuishu is counted as one of the "Sandaishu," or "Collections of the Three Eras," the orthodox canon of classical poetry and the source of decorous, elegant diction and expression. As the title indicates, the purpose of the collection was to collect worthy poems of earlier times that had for one reason or another missed inclusion in the earlier two imperial anthologies. The most important poets are Ki no Tsurayuki (113 poems), Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (104), Onakatomi no Yoshinobu (59), Kiyohara no Motosuke (46), Taira no Kanemori (38), Oshikochi no Mitsune (34), Minamoto no Shitagau (27) and Lady Ise (25).

Poems included in Hyakunin Isshu: 3, 26, 38, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 53, 55 (total 11)

Visiting

Osawa Pond in western Kyoto was laid out by Emperor Saga and modeled on Lake Dongting in China. The five-acre lake contains two islands and a number of rock formations and was used for boating. The 9th century emperor also built a retirement villa at the lakeside which was in 876 converted into Daikakuji Temple. Although the buildings are of later date, present-day Daikakuji retains the atmosphere of a shinden-style palace with large halls connected by covered corridors and with small courtyard gardens in between (reminding one of the courtyard gardens or tsubo-niwa described in The Tale of Genji). The precious screens and esoteric Buddhist statues in its Treasure House are shown twice a year to visitors. The Nakoso Falls of the poem are a dry waterfall at Osawa Pond. Note that Osawa Pond and Daikakuji are in the same area as Teika's villa on Mount Ogura.

Access: 15 min walk from Saga Arashiyama St on the Keifuku and JR lines, 25 min from Hankyu Arashiyama St; there is also a direct bus from Kyoto St or Sanjo St.
Ozawa Pond and the Nakoso Waterfall are freely accessible (without paying the entrance fee to the temple)
Near the dry waterfall stands a stone into which the present poem has been engraved.

References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, by Peter MacMIllan (Penguin Classics); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Chishiki Zero kara no Hyakunin Isshu, by Ariyoshi Tamotsu (Gentosha); Hyakunin Isshu Kaibo Zukan, by Tani Tomoko (X-Knowledge);  Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).


    Photos: my own work

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