The plant in the original poem is a perennial of the chrysanthemum family bearing white or light pink flowers, which bloom in autumn for a long time.
This playful poem is a folk song in substance. This kind of song might well have been sung in chorus by men and women as banter at, say, an older man who sponsored a party or gathering.
A poem by a man departing on a journey.
In ancient days there was the belief that if lovers' souls meet in their dreams, their love will be fulfilled.
The last two lines, literally translated, read: "So unawares I encountered you." But some annotators say that this poem may be interpreted as in the translation given here.
Until a young man could obtain the permission of his love's mother, he had to visit his love by stealth at night and leave her by dawn. This poem, substantially a folk song, expresses many lovers' desire to sleep long into the day.
Travelers' thirst and imagination are thought to have produced this beautiful poem, substantially a folk song.
A poem written by a woman in the East to her lover who has probably been ordered to go to the capital on some official duty. This may well have been a folk song.
A poem by a man whose attentions to a married woman have been repulsed.
A maid, lamenting her roughened hands, modestly airs her joy in her love affair. It is presumed that this kind of folk song was widely popular in East Japan.
A young woman sulks at the last moment, when the couple is to fulfill the final pledge of love. The young man thinks her all the lovelier on account of such behavior.
In Man'yō days there was a common belief that the cord of one's undergarment coming undone easily foretold that one's love would be fulfilled.
Poetry of Envoys and Frontier Guards
Diplomatic Mission to Silla
In 736 Japan dispatched a diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Silla in Korea. In those days the sea journey was perilous, and all the more poignant were parting and the travelers' longing for home. The Man'yōshū includes 156 poems composed by members of this mission. Among these poems are those exchanged by the envoys during their journey. All the poems of the mission express love for dear ones, not patriotic sentiment or determination to fulfill the mission. The majority of the poems are anonymous. Of these poems, three have been selected for this book.
Usually a farewell poem is written first by the one who will remain behind and a farewell poem in reply is written by the one who is departing. No. 461 is a poem written by a wife to her husband, who was leaving for Silla. No. 462 is a reply poem by the husband.
Wife of Hatano Mushimaro
461
You have cared for me
As a hen enfolds her brood
Under her warm wings.
Being far from you,
I shall pine away until I die.
(3578)
Hatano Mushimaro
462
Could I take my wife
On our ship,
I would take tender care of her,
As a hen, assembling her brood,
Holds them under her warm wings.
(3579)
The following poem is anonymous.
463
Should a mist arise
About an inn where you will stay
On your travels overseas,
Think of it as the white breath
Of the sighs I heave at home.
(3580)
Frontier Guards
The Dazaifu, the government and defense headquarters of Kyushu (then known as Tsukushi), was established in northern Kyushu in 670 to defend against possible attacks from the continent and also to suppress local uprisings. For these purposes, frontier guards were recruited from military divisions under the supervision of provincial governors and were sent to Kyushu for a garrison posting of three years under the command of the governor general of the Dazaifu.
A greater part of the guards was recruited from the eastern part of Japan, because the people in East Japan, which was remote from the capital, were brave and trustworthy and obedient to their commander.
To the people of East Japan, Kyushu was a region distant beyond imagination, and the trip there was fraught with dangers. Those ordered to serve as frontier guards left home hardly expecting to return alive. Since the provisions and equipment provided by the government for frontier guards were insufficient, the guards' families had to make heavy outlays with great sacrifice and suffered many hardships. The number of frontier guards stationed at the Dazaifu was approximately three thousand. They eked out a living by farming.
Ōtomo-no-Yakamochi, the preeminent poet who was undersecretary of war, was in the position to supervise the affairs of frontier guards. He was sympathetic with the hardships of these men, and he invited each frontier guard to submit one poem of his own composition on the subject of his choice. Thus, in 755 Yakamochi obtained a small collection of frontier guards'poems. Discarding awkward ones, he included ninety-eight of them in the Man'yōshū. Of these, eighty-four give the poets' names.
In ancient times, lettered people were rare. Nearly all the frontier guards' poems are thought to have been improved or rewritten by poetically minded people before they were presented to Ōtomo-no-Yakamochi, who, presumably, further improved the poems before including them in the Man'yōshū.
The notable feature of this group of frontier guards' poems is that there is not a single war song, and very few of them express patriotic or martial spirit. The men of East Japan were known as the bravest of soldiers, but in Man'yō days, the exhibition of love, grief, and strong emotion was not inhibited, and the vast majority of their poems are lyrics that lay bare what was uppermost in their minds—their intense love and longing for loved ones. Poems that give vent to love for wives are greatest in number, followed by those that express love for sweethearts, children, and parents. The poems of wives and lovers are outspoken in their grief at parting and expressions of tender love for husbands and lovers who are far away from home. The unique literary merit of the frontier guards' poems lies in the amazingly frank outpouring of genuine, intense love—the finest and strongest of all human emotions—which makes a treasury of literary gems that never fails in its powerful appeal to all ages and peoples.
Monobe-no-Akimochi
464
in obedience to
The emperor's command,
From tomorrow;
I shall sleep on a bed of grass,
Missing my beloved wife.
(4321)
Wakayamatobe-no-Mimaro
465
My beloved wife
Must Long for me.
Even in the water which I drink,
Her dear image appears.
She is always with me.
(4322)
466
All the year round
Flowers bloom. But never in my life
Have I seen a flower as fair
As my mother whom I love.
(4324)
Motonobe-no-Komaro
467
O that l had time
To draw a picture of my wife.
It would ease
And comfort me
On travel's weary way.
(4327)
Tamatsukuribe-no-Hirome
468
Frontier guard as 1 am,
Hardship I can endure.
But the weight upon my mind
is the hardship of my wife
Caring for our children.
(4343)
Aki-no-Osa-no-Obitomaro
469
O'er hills and fields
l have traveled,
Yet my parents
Are always in my mind.
(4344)
Hasebe-no-Inamaro
470
How can I forget
My parents,
Stroking me upon the head—
"Come back safe and sound.
Good Luck to you!"
(4346)
Fath
er of Kusakabe-no-Omiminaka
471
How I wish I were
Your bright sword,
To be with you
And to fight in your defense
Rather than to miss you so at home.
(4347)
Tamatsukuribe-no-Kunioshi
472
Far away from home,
On my travels sometimes
I sleep under seven quilts.
Yet without my darling wife,
Cold and cheerless is my bed.
(4351)
Hasebe-no-Tori
473
Now I must set out,
Leaving you who tenderly
Cling and clasp me tight,
As a vine entwines itself
Fast around a roadside briar.
(4352)
Hasebe-no-Yoromaro
474
Hever shall I forget
The tender glances of love
From my darling,
Amid such flurried haste
As a flock of waterfowl makes
Taking flight from a pond.
(4354)
Mononobe-no-Otora
475
On the day I Left
Bitterly my mother wept.
Fast she held my hands,
Burying her face in my sleeves.
I'll never forget.
(4356)
Osakabe-no-Chikuni
476
In my mind I see
My darling wife
Crying bitterly
Behind the garden hedge,
Her sleeves wet with tears.
(4357)
Mononobe-no-Tatsu
477
When I Left home
At the Lord's command,
My darling wife,
Clinging to me,
Cried her heart out in bitter tears.
(4358)
Ōtomobe-no-Chifumi
478
How sweet is my love.
Lovely as a lily
Growing on a hill.
I am rapt in Love for her by day.
I am Lost in Love for her by night.
(4369)
479
Praying to the god
Of the Kashima Shrine,
Where hail falls thick and fast,
I have come as a frontier guard
Of the Kyushu Defense Garrison.
(4370)
Imamatsuribe-no-Yosofu
480
I depart this day,
With no regard for myself,
As a humble shield
Of the sovereign
Against a hail of arrows and swords.
(4373)
Mononobe-no-Mashima
481
I never see pine trees
In a row
But I recall
How my family
Formed a line to see me off.
(4375)
Tsumori-Shukkune-Ogurosu
482
I wish
That my mother were a pearl
Or a jewel bright!
Then I'd wear it
In my tightly dressed hair.
(4377)
Otabe-no-Tarihito
483
My sweet lovely girl
Budding into womanhood,
She afforded me ecstasy.
How could I
Tear myself from her?
(4387)
Oshinobe-no-Ihomaro
484
How dear is my wife,
Whom I see, with my mind's eye,
Praying for my sake
To the gods at many shrines,
Making pious offerings.
(4391)
Ōtomobe-no-Mayosa
485
To what god of sky and earth
Should I pray
To once more see My mother dear,
Who is a thousand leagues away?
(4392)
Osata-no-Toneri Ōshima
486
When I left them,
My motherless children,
Clung to the hem
Of my robe,
Crying their hearts out.
(4401)
Asakura-no-Masahito
487
"Look at this, and think of me,"
Said my wife and made a knot
In my inner sash.
Even though it wears thin and frays,
It shall never be untied.
(4405)
The following two poems are a pair. A husband's poem is followed by his wife's.
Mononobe-no-Toshitoko
488
As we hold a pearl
And gaze on its pure beauty,
So I wish to behold my love
Intently, closely,
Her sweet beauty to enjoy.
(4415)
Kurahashibe-no-Tojime (Wife of Mononobe-no-Toshitoko)
489
Since my husband sleeps
On a bed of grass
On his travel to the front,
I will go to bed at home,
With my sash tightly tied.
(4416)
Mononobe-no-Hirotari
490
O you dear camellia fair
In full glory by the gate!
You'll have fallen, I'm afraid,
Without my touching you
By the time I return home.
(4418)
The following two poems were written by a frontier guard and his wife.
Mononobe-no-Mane
491
Though the hearth smokes badly,
Yet how good and comfortable
Is my cottage
Away In Kyushu.
How dear it is to me!
(4419)
Wife of Mononobe-no-Mane
492
Far away from home
Under stars you'll sleep
On a bed of grass.
If your clothes become torn,
With this needle stitch them up.
(4420)
Hatoribe-no-Asame
493
Now my husband is
Away in Kyushu,
All the dearer he is to me.
I go to bed
With my sash tightly tied.
(4422)
The following two poems composed by a couple are also a pair.
Fujiwarabe-no-Tomomaro
494
Standing at the top
Of Ashigara Pass,
If l wave my arms
Will my wife at home
See me clearly?
(4423)
Wife of Fujiwarabe-no-Tomomaro
495
Would I'd deeper dyed
My husband's garments.
All the clearer I'd see him
Till the mountaintop,
Where he'll wave his Last farewell.
(4424)
The following four poems are anonymous.
Written on Water Page 13