KKS Kanajo 5

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今の世の中、色につき、人の心、花になりにけるより、あだなる歌、はかなきことのみ出でくれば、色好いろごのみの家に埋むもれ木の人知れぬこととなりて、まめなる所には、花薄すすき穂ほに出だすべき事にもあらずなりにたり。

その初めを思へば、かかるべくなんあらぬ。古いにしへの世々よよの帝、春の花の朝あした、秋の月の夜ごとに、さぶらふ人々を召して、ことにつけつつ歌をたてまつらしめたまふ。あるは花をそふとて、便たよりなき所に惑う、あるは月を思ふとて、しるべなき闇にたどれる心々を見たまひて、さかし・おろかなりとしろしめしけん。

しかあるのみにあらず、さざれ石にたとへ、筑波山つくはやまにかけて君をねがひ、よろこび身に過ぎ、たのしみ心にあまり、富士の煙によそへて人を恋ひ、松虫の音ねに友を偲しのび、高砂たかさご・住の江の松もあひおひのやうにおぼえ、男山の昔を思ひ出て、女郎花をみなへしの一時ひとときをくねるにも歌をいひてぞ慰めける。

また、春の朝あしたに花の散るを見、秋の夕暮に木の葉の落つるを聞き、あるは年毎としごとに鏡の影に見ゆる雪と浪とを嘆き、草の露、水の泡を見て、我が身を驚き、あるは昨日は栄さかへおごりて、時を失ひ、世にわび、親しかりしもうとくなり、あるは松山の浪をかけ、野中の水を汲くみ、秋萩はぎの下葉を眺め、暁の鴫しぎの羽掻がきを数へ、あるは呉竹くれたけのうきふしを人に言ひ、吉野河をひきて世の中をうらみきつるに、今は富士の山も煙立たずなり、長柄ながらの橋も造るなり、と聞く人は、歌にのみぞ心を慰めける。

In the current world, since people's hearts have become flowers drawn by surface beauty, and only frivolous poems on flighty subjects arise, so the amorous individual poems are unknown, hidden like a submerged tree, and for serious purposes, they do not appear like the stalk from a plant.

When we think of the beginning, this was not the case. In the reigns of ancient Emperors, on each morning of spring flowers or evening of the autumn moon, the Emperor would call his various retainers, and they would present poetry on various topics. One would be led by the flowers and get lost in unreliable places, and another would think of the moon and wander into darkness without any guideposts. It seems that the Emperor would see each heart and judge whether they were wise or foolish.

And not only that: blessing one's lord with comparisons to pebbles or wordplay with Tsukuha mountain, having one's heart overflowing with joy at receiving their approval, longing for someone with comparisons to Mt. Fuji's smoke, thinking of one's friend with the sound of pine crickets, imagining an eternal bond like the pines of Sumie and Takasago, remembering the past of Otoko mountain and insulting the brief bloom of the pinks -- they soothed their hearts with poems.

Also, one saw cherry blossoms fall on spring mornings, one heard leaves falling on autumn nights, one year after year lamented the snow and waves seen in the image in the mirror, one was surprised at their body seeing the dew on the grass or froth on the water, one gloried in yesterday's success and bemoaned their loss of position in the world, when those who were once close now grew distant, one placed their hopes in the crashing of waves on Matsuyama, drew water from fields, gazed at the underside of autumn bush clover, and counted the flapping of the wings of a dawn snipe, one told people of the sorrows of the world and drew on the Yoshino River to lament the world -- but now, for people who hear that the smoke no longer rises from Mount Fuji or that the Nagara Bridge has been built: they can only soothe their hearts with poetry.

Notes

flowers drawn by surface beauty

The exact meaning of iro ni tsuki is a bit difficult to pin down, but both Katagiri and Takeoka agree that it refers to flashy, surface-level beauty with no lasting substance underneath.

individual poems

Tsurayuki here is contrasting the individual love poems that were composed and disappeared, with more serious public poetry (the "serious purposes") mentioned. Both the submerged tree and stalk metaphors are common in poetic expression (perhaps ironically, both are used in love poetry).

the beginning

This section seems to be talking about the time period after the start of poetry discussed in the previous section.

morning of spring flowers or evening of the autumn moon

In the context of the passage, these phrases are referring to the times of official public celebrations.

led by the flowers

The exact meaning of this sentence is difficult; Takeoka interprets it to mean the "scene" of the poem itself, but Katagiri interprets the sentence as a metaphor for the difficulty of composing good poems on these topics.

Not just like that

This paragraph contrasts with the public, official uses of poetry before. In this section and the next one, most commentaries cite specific poems for the various phrases. Ideally these citations should be from the "anonymous age" of poetry rather than contemporary poetry, but it's not entirely clear whether all of the phrases were intended to match specific poems or whether some of them were just expressing general poetic topics, even ones that may have been more common in Tsurayuki's era.

comparisons to pebbles

KKS 343

wordplay with Tsukuha mountain

KKS 1095

having one's heart overflowing...

Takeoka cites KKS 865 for this and has trouble coming up with a poem for the "approval" part. Katagiri instead interprets this clause as a consequence of the previous one rather than a separate clause with its own poetic references.

Mt. Fuji's smoke

KKS 534

sound of pine crickets

KKS 200

Sumie and Takasago

KKS 905, KKS 908.

eternal bond

Katagiri interprets this as a lament of old age rather than a bond of friendship.

Otoko mountain

KKS 889

brief bloom of the pinks

KKS 1016, although this is a poem by Bishop Henjō, Katagiri thinks that the "six poetic immortals" may have been paired with the "anonymous" era poets in the sense that their poetry was more valued in Tsurayuki's time than those of the contemporary poets.

cherry blossoms fall on spring mornings

In this section, many of the references may be to general poetic tropes rather than specific poems, or else poems that were not included in the KKS.

year after year lamented the snow and waves seen in the image in the mirror

These are images of the white hair as seen in the mirror.

surprised at their body seeing the dew on the grass or froth on the water

These are things that quickly vanish, a metaphor for the fleeting nature of life. KKS 860 and KKS 792 are examples.

gloried in yesterday's success and bemoaned their loss of position in the world

[[KKS 933], perhaps.

placed their hopes in the crashing of waves on Matsuyama

A clear reference to KKS 1093. The "crash" (kake) also refers to wordplay.

drew water from fields

KKS 887

gazed at the underside of autumn bush clover

KKS 220

and counted the flapping of the wings of a dawn snipe

KKS 761

one told people of the sorrows of the world

KKS 958

and drew on the Yoshino River to lament the world

KKS 828

the smoke no longer rises from Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji's burning and smoking was used as a poetic metaphor for love and longing, but in Tsurayuki's time the volcanic activity had ceased.

or that the Nagara Bridge has been built

KKS 1051. The historical details here are somewhat uncertain, but the idea seems to be that the Nagara Bridge was used as a metaphor for something crumbling or old (or broken), but that it had been rebuilt.

Commentary

The first paragraph expresses the idea that contemporary poetry is all on frivolous, individual topics without the serious public poetry of prior ages. Katagiri notes that this is not entirely true; the historical chronicles show examples of official poetry in the Heian period. However, there were no imperially sponsored Japanese poetry collections -- only three imperially sponsored Chinese poetry collections. This is probably what Tsurayuki is trying to emphasize, rather than a literal complete lack of public waka poetry. At the time, the Man'yōshū was believed to have been imperially commissioned, so Tsurayuki was contrasting the current dismissive attitude towards waka with the age of that prior collection.

The second paragraph claims that in prior ages, poetry was used by the Emperor to separate ranks and offices. This is a Chinese-derived practice, but does not seem to have actually been practiced in Japan -- the use of the kemu (it seems) suffix may indicate that Tsurayuki realized this was not entirely accurate, but still wanted to emphasize the utility of Japanese poetry in comparison to Chinese. Katagiri sees the rhetoric in this whole section as a way to emphasize the importance of this new Imperially sponsored collection of Japanese poetry.

The final two paragraphs are a long list of specific poetic tropes by which Tsurayuki shows the breadth of Japanese poetry, and in particular what kind of things they "see and hear" that caused them to write poetry. As mentioned in the notes above, it's not clear that every reference is to a specific poem, and Tsurayuki was not necessary careful to make sure that each poetic topic definitely occurred in the poetry of the older age.

The final paragraph's main idea is summed up by the metaphor of the last lines: in this age of the decline of poetry, people can only rely on old compositions to soothe their hearts.

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