13 The Manyōshū
Nahir I. Otaño Gracia and Averie Basch
Or The Ten Thousand Leaves
Japanese (Man’yōgana)
Ca. 759
The Manyōshū, or The Collection of Thousand Leaves, comes from Japan’s Nara period (710-784 CE) and is hailed as one of Japan’s oldest treasuries of poetry. The poetic art was so influential that the seventh and eighth centuries were called the Man’yō Age in honor of the work. As an anthology, the Manyōshū contains poems from a number of areas written by many unknown poets. Before this time, Japan had a strong oral culture but no written language system. In the eighth century, Japan adapted and altered Chinese characters into a written system later called the Man’yōgana. The Man’yōgana appears very similar to Chinese characters, but the emphasis is on pronunciation rather than spelling, making the Man’yōgana a phonetics-based writing system. Many of the poems within this anthology predate the eighth century in oral form but were only written down after Japan took on the altered pictographs. As a result, many of the original authors’ names are lost.
Scholars recognize Ōtomo no Yakamochi as the Manyōshū’s primary collector; he is also known for having written some of the included poetry himself. The poems highlight a number of subjects, including the beauty of nature, the courage of warriors, and the many aspects of the human condition. Structurally, these poems will appear in either a long form (the chōka) or the short poem (the tanka). The chōka has no specific number of lines, but the lines of the poem will alternate between five and seven syllables in length. When reading these in translation, keep in mind the effort that authors put into the original works in order to adhere to these structural rules.
The Manyōshū
The complete texts of the Manyōshū are quite long. In lieu of assigning the entire work, we suggest these selections and pages:
We recommend Kakimoto Hitomaro’s poems on pgs 27, 31-34, 46-47
- Pg. 27-28: https://archive.org/details/Manyoshu/page/n113/mode/2up
- Pg. 31-34: https://archive.org/details/Manyoshu/page/n117/mode/2up
- Pg. 46-47: https://archive.org/details/Manyoshu/page/n133/mode/2up
Lady Ōtomo of Sakanoé, pgs 125-129
Princess Nukada, pg 10-12
Princess Kagami, pg 12
EXERCISE:
Compare these same poems from the The Manyōshū1 with their accompanying Envoy poems but translated by different scholars—Hideo Levy and Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai. Remember that we are parting from the idea that multiple translations give additional access to the texts we study. When you look at both versions together, how do the translations differ at the level of the title, the poem, the line, and the word? What do these differences add to your understanding of the poem? What additional information do you gain from the comparison?
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Kakinomoto Hitomaro, On passing the ruined capital of Omi with Hitomaro, When he passed the ruined capital at Ōmi (below)2
Since the reign of the Master of the Sun3 at Kashiwara by Unebi Mountain, where the maidens wear strands of jewels, all gods who have been born have ruled the realm under heaven, each following each like generations of the spruce, in Yamato4 that spreads to the sky. What was in his mind that he would leave it and cross beyond the hills of Nara, beautiful in blue earth? Though a barbarous place at the far reach of the heavens, here in the land of Ōmi where the waters race on stone, at the Ōtsu Palace in Sasanami by the rippling waves, the Emperor, divine Prince, ruled the realm under heaven. Though I hear this was the great palace, though they tell me here were the mighty halls, now it is rank with spring grasses. Mist rises, and the spring sun is dimmed. Gazing on the ruins of the great palace, its walls once thick with wood and stone, I am filled with sorrow.
Envoys Cape Kara in Shiga at Sasanami by the rippling waves, you are as before, but I wait for courtiers’ boats in vain. Waters, you are quiet in deep bends of Shiga’s lake at Sasanami by the rippling waves, but never again may I meet the men of ancient times.
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Compare Hitomaro, On leaving his wife as he set out from Iwami for the capital with Poem written by Kakinomoto Hitomaro when he parted from his wife in the land of Iwami and came up to the capital (below)
At Cape Kara on the Sea of Iwami, where the vines crawl on the rocks, rockweed of the deep grows on the reefs and sleek seaweed grows on the desolate shore. As deeply do I think of my wife who swayed toward me in sleep like the lithe seaweed. Yet few were the nights we had slept together before we were parted like crawling vines uncurled. And so I look back, still thinking of her with painful heart, this clench of inner flesh, but in the storm of fallen scarlet leaves on Mount Watari,5 crossed as on a great ship, I cannot make out the sleeves she waves in farewell. For she, alas, is slowly hidden like the moon in its crossing between the clouds over Yagami Mountain just as the evening sun coursing through the heavens has begun to glow, and even I who thought I was a brave man find the sleeves of my well-woven robe drenched with tears.
Envoys The quick gallop Of my dapple-blue steed races me to the clouds, passing far away from where my wife dwells. O scarlet leaves falling on the autumn mountainside: stop, for a while, the storm your strewing makes, that I might glimpse the place where my wife swells.
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FURTHER READINGS:
For an alternate translation of these texts, see: The Manyōshū : The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai Translation of One Thousand Poems, with the Texts in Romaji, edited by Donald Keene and published by Columbia University Press in 1965.
For the full text of the Manyōshū, use the following link:
http://gwern.net/doc/japan/poetry/1940-nippongakujutsushinkokai-manyoshu.pdf
https://archive.org/details/Manyoshu, or go directly to the PDF form here:
https://archive.org/download/Manyoshu/Anonymous%201000%20Poems%20from%20the%20Manyoshu%20The%20Complete%20Nippon%20Gakujutsu%20Shinkokai%20Translation%20%20%20%201965.pdf
For shorter selections of poetry from The Manyōshū, see here:
https://www1.udel.edu/History-old/figal/Hist138/Text/er/manyoshu.pdf
