IAN HIDE0 LEVY

The Ten Thousand Leaves

A TRANSLATION OF THE

Many6shti,
JAPANS PREMIER ANTHOLOGY OF CLASSICAL POETRY VOLUME ONE

*
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS IYSI

32

POEMS ON VARIOUS THEMES

T HE REIGN P ALACE
IN

OF

E M P E R O R YURYAKU, WHO R U L E D
FROM THE

THE RE A L M UNDEK HEAVEN

A SAKURA

HATSUSE (456-479)

BY THE AUTHOR

The road alongside the mountams (Yamanohe no michi)

Girl with vour basket, with your pretty basket, with your shovel, with your pretty shovel, gathering shoots on the hillside here. I want to ask your home. Tell me your nnmc! This land of Yamato, seen by the gods on highit is nil my realm, in all of it 1 am supreme. I will tell you my home and my name.

T H E KEICN OF EMPEKOH JOMEI, WH O KLJI.ELI

T H E

REALM UN

D E R A

E A V E N T

F R O M

T H E

OKAMOTO PALACE

TAKECI-II (629-642)

Many are the mountnlns of Yamato, but I climb heavenly Kugu Hill that is cloaked in foliage, and stand on the summit to view the land. On the plain of land, smoke from the hearths rises, rises. On the plain of waters, gulls rise one after another. A splendid land is the dragonfly island, the land of Yamato. 3 and 4

held and caressed his catalpa bow. In the evening h e stood hc\~dc It. I can hear Itr golden tips resound. Now he must hc setting out on his morning hunt. Now he must he setting out on his evening hunt. I can hear the golden tips of his catalpa bow resound.

Envoy
Lining his steeds on the plain of Uchi, he must be walking over morning fieldsthose fields so rank with grass! 5 and 6

Poem which Princess Nakatsu bud Hashrhito Oyu present when the Emperor went hunting on the fields of Uchi
Our Lord, sovereign of the earths eight corners, in the morning

Poem written by Prince lkusa as be looked at the mountains where the Emperor bad gone on his procession to Aya County in the land of Sanuki
Not even knowmg if the long spring day has drawn through its mist into evening, my heart, these twines of inner flesh, in pain,

D r a g o n f l y Island (okrfsushirna). The Kcylkl explain\ thts tradttional rplthet for Yamato wtth the mcldent, rccordcd dumlp ~1, c'xcur$101~ to Yoshmo by Emperor Ytiryaku In whtch the Emperor was bttten by a horsefly. which was In turn devoured by a dragontly.

34

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135

II. At Cape Karal 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 1 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, crossed as on a great ship, 1 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. 136 and Envoys The quick gallop of my dapple-blue steed races me to the clouds, passing far away from where my wife dwells. 0 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 dwells.
137

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wilting like the summer grass, staggering like an evening star, reeling like a great boat, we cannot console ourselves, we do not know what to do. At least let us remember, if only the sound, if only the name, forever far and long as heaven and earth. Ten thousand ages to the Asuka River that bears the name of our beloved Princess: her memento, it is here. 197 and 198

199

Poem by Kakinomoto Hitomaro at the time of th: temporary enshrinement of Prince Take&i at Kinoe
with tanka I hesitate to put it in words, it is an awesome thing to speak. Our Lord, who, while we trembled, fixed the far and heavenly halls of his shrine on the fields of Makami in Asuka and, godlike, has secluded himself in the rocks there, he, who ruled the earths eight corners, crossed Fuwa Mountain, lined with thick black pines, in the northern land of his realm and went down, as from heaven, to the provinces, encamping on the plain of Wazami, Wazami of the Korean swords. To hold sway over the realm under heaven and bring his dominions to peace, he gathered his soldiers in the eastern country, where the cock cries, and gave the task to his son, he being an imperial prince:

Tatika
If they had piled branches across the Asuka River to stop its course, even the streaming waters would have become quiet. Asuka, river of tomorrows fragrance: hoping, but in vain, to meet her at least tomorrow, I cannot forget my Princess name. : ; / I

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to pacify the ragtng rebels and subdue the defiant lands. Then our Prince girded his great body with his long sword and took in his great hands his bow. The sound of the drums, calling the troops to ready, boomed like the very voice of thunder, and the echoing notes of the signallers flute grew, to the terror of all, like the roar of a tiger with prey in its eyes. The rippling of the high-held banners was like the rippling of the fires struck across every field when spring comes, bursting winters bonds, and the roar of the bowstrings they plucked was so fearful, we thought it a hurricane whirling through a snowfallen winter forest. When the arrows they let loose swarmed like a blinding swirl of snow, the resisters, standing defiant, also resolved to perish, if they must, like the dew and frost. As they struggled like zooming birds, the divine wind from the Shrine of our offerings at Ise in Watarai blew confusion upon them, hiding the very light of day

as clouds blanketed the he;rvens in eternal darkness. Thus pacifying this land, abundant in ears of rice, our Lord, sovereign of the earths eight corners, a very god, firmly drove his palace pillars and proclaimed his rule over the realm under heavenfor ten thousand generations, we thought. But just as his reign flourished brilliant as the white bouquets of mulberry paper, suddenly they deck his princely halls to make a godly shrine, and the courtiers who served him now wear mourning clothes of white hemp. On the fields before the Haniyasu Palace gate they crawl and stumble like deer as long as the sun still streams its crimson, and when pitch-black night descends they crawl around like quail, tuning to look up at the great halls. They wait upon him, but they wait in vain, and so they moan like the plaintive birds of spring. Before their cries can be stilled or their mournful thoughts exhausted the divine cortege is borne from the Kudara Plain,

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borne away. Loftily he raises the palace at Kinoe, good of hempen cloth, as his eternal shrine. A god, his soul is sttlled there. Yet could we even Imagine that his palace by Kagu Hill will pass away in the ten thousand generattons he intended as he burlt? I turn to gaze on it as I would on the heavens, bearing it in my heart like a strand of jewels, preciously remembering, awesome though it be.

202 One book has for an envoy,

Offering him sacred wine, we pray at the shrine of Nakisawa, the marsh of tears. But our Lord is gone to rule the high heavens. In the Forest of Classified Verse, the above poem is said to be by Princess Hinokuma, In her anger at the Nakisawa Shrine (for the Princes absence). The Nihonshoki states that the later Crown Prince, Takechi, died in autumn, on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the tenth year of the reign (696).

203 200 and 201 Envoys

Although you rule the far heavens now, we go on longing for you, unmindful of the passing of sun and moon. Not knowing where they will drift, like the hidden puddles that run on the banks of Haniyasu Pond, the servingmen stand bewildered.

Poem by Prince Hozumi crying in SOYYOW on a winter day after the death of Princess Tajima, as be looked ou through the falling snow toward her grave
Falling snow, do not fall so hard. Do not be a barrier to my sight of Ikai Hill in Yonabari.

156 a B O O K T H R E E

248 Another poem by Prince Nagata

Today I saw the Satsuma Channel, Satsuma of the wild Hayato men, distant as the dwelling of the clouds.

251

At Cape Noshima in Awaji, the cords of my sleeves that my wife tied for me are blown backward in the beach wind.

252 249-256 Eight poems of travel by Kakinomoto f-fitomaro 249

Fearing the billows off Cape Mitsu, you have passed the night by the island on your boat in the hidden cove. Do they see me as a fisher catching perch in Fujre Cove, of rhe hempen cloth, I who journey?
A

variant has, Do thev see me as a fisher angling in Fujie Cove, of the whtte cloth, I who journey?

250 253
Passing Minume, where they cut the sleek seaweed, our boat has drawn near Cape Noshima, rank with summer grass. A variant has, Passing Otome, where they cut the sleek seaweed, I build my temporary lodge on Cape Noshima, rank with summer grass. Even as I think how hard it is to leave behind the fields of Inabi, the island of Kago, for which my heart yearns, comes into sight.

254
Will I part rowing to the sun that sinks into the Akashi Straits, bright with lampfires, the land of home beyond my sight?

158 a BOOK THREE 25.5 Over a long road, tram hnrhartnn lands at the far reach of the heavens, I have come, yearntng. And now the Straits of Akashi open on the island, Yamato. to heavenly Ki,rgu H111, descended from the tirmament, the wind In the pines raises waves on the pond, and darkening leaves thicken on the cherry trees. On the offing the lone duck cries for its mate, by the shore the spotted ducks flock and rustle. Courtiers of the great palace, its ramparts thick with stone, have taken their leave; oars and poles are gone from the boats, and it is lonely, with no one there to row them. 258 and 259 A variant has, The surface of the sea at Muko looks peaceful; I can see, above the waves, the boats of angling fishermen. 257 Two envoys And 1 can clearly see that the boats lie unrowed, for the diving mandarin and the teal have made them their home. When did Kagus halberd cedar tu:n so venerably aged that moss spreads on its roots?

BOOK THREE a I.59

open on the land of my home 2.56 The surface of the sea at Kehi looks peaceful; I can see, bobbling out in confusion like rushes scythed from roots, the boats of fishermen.

Poem about Kagu Hill by Lord Kamo Tarihito

wnh tanka When spring comes, with rising mists,

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B O O K THKEE o 339 Great sages of thr pn\t tl1c 11J111~ of "\*1gc" How well they spoke!

187

336

Poem 6y the Priest Mansei abour floss-srlk

He was the imperl;ll .~ttend.~nr who built the Kannonll Temple III Tsukushi. HI S lay name was Kas.1 Mare. Keeping it with me, I have yet to put it on. But it looks warm, this floss-silk from Tsukushi. 337

gave

IO WIIlC'.

340 What the Seven Wise Men o t ancient time\ wanted, it seems, was wine. 341 Rather than making pronouncements with an air of wisdom, its better to down the wine and sob drunken tears. 342

Poem by Yamanoue Okura, upon leaving a banquet

Okura shall take his leave now. My child must be crying and its mother, who bears it on her back, must be waiting for me. 338-350

Thirteen poems in praise of wine by Lord bomo Tabito, the Commander of the Dazaifu
338 Rather than engaging in useless worries, its better to down a cup of raw wine.

What is most noble, beyond all words and beyond all deeds, is wine. 343 Rather than be half-heartedly human, 1 wish I could be a jug of wine and be soaked in it!

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344 How ugly! those men who, with airs of wisdom, refuse to drink wine. Take a good look, and they resemble apes. 34.5 How could even a priceless treasure be better than a cup of raw wine? 346 How could even a gem that glitters in the night be as good as drinking wine and cleansing the heart? 347 Here in this life, on these roads of pleasure, it is fun to sob drunken tears.

348 As long as I have fun

in this Ilfc, let me hc an Insect or 3 hid in the next.

349 Since all who live must finally die, lets have fun while were still alive. 350 Smug and silent airs of wisdom are still not as good as downing a cup of wine and sobbing drunken tears. 351

Poem by the Priest Mansei

To what shall 1 compare this life? the way a boat rowed out from the morning harbor leaves no traces on the sea.

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456 Longing for you, there is nothing I can do, so, like the cranes among the reeds, I weep and cry aloud in the morning and the evening. 4s7 Lord whom 1 thought I would serve far into the distant future, you are no more, and my heart has lost its bearing. 458 Crawling like a baby, 1 weep, and 1 cry aloud in the morning and the evening, now that you, my Lord, are gone. The above five poems were written by Tabitos servant, Yo Myogun, who loved his master as a dog or horse would, unable to repress the emotions in his heart. My Lord, I never tired to look upon you while you were alive; such sadness now that you are gone like the scattered lrnvcs of autumn. Agatanolnuknl Hitogami, Administrator of the Board of Inner Ceremonies, was ordered to minister to Lord Otomos illness. But the medicine had no effect. Running water cannot be stopped-the Lord died. Agatanoinukai, grief-struck over this, wrote the above poem. 460 Poem by Lady Chomo Sakanoue in the seventh year of Tempyo (735), grieving over the death of the nun

: b

Rigwan
with tanka Hearing that this is a good land, she came from Silla, land of mulberry-woven nets, and crossed to Japan, where she had no relations, no brothers and sisters to talk to. The sun-blessed capital of our Lords realms is packed with many quarters and houses, but-what could have been in her mind?-

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she was drawn, like a weeping child to its parents, to the Saho mountainside, so foreign to her. There she built a house where she could place her well-woven pillow, and has dwelled there through the long years. But she could not escape the fact that all who live must die; while everyone she depended on was away on a journey, with grass for pillows, she crossed the Saho River in the morning and, glancing back on the fields of Kasuga, disappeared toward the mountainside as one fades into the gathering darkness of evening, There is nothing I can say, nothing I can do, so I wander all alone without a moment to dry my white mourning robesdo these tears I cry in my grief trail as clouds over Arima Mountain and fall as rain?

461

Envoy
Lifes course cannot be stopped, and so she is gone out from the house where she kept her well-woven pillow, and is hidden In the clouds. The above refer to a nun from Silla m Korea, her name Rigwan. She felt our rulers virtue from afar, and came to our holy realm and was naturalized. She lived in the home of Lord otomo Yasumaro, Chancellor and Commander of the Army, and had been there for some years when, in the seventh year of Tempyo (735), she suddenly came down with a fatal disease, and was soon away to the realm of the dead. At this time Lady Ishlkawa was at the hot springs of Arima for her cure, and was unable to attend the funeral. Her daughter, however, asked that she be allowed to interrupt her journey and go alone to perform the obsequies. Thus she wrote this poem and sent it to her mother at the hot springs. 462

Poem written by &omo Yakamochi in summer, the sixth month, of the eleventh year of Tempy6 (739), in his grief over his dead concubine
Soon the autumn winds will be blowing coldly; how can 1 sleep through the long nights alone?

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886 and 891

Six poems respectfully presented in response to Asada Yaws, expressing Kumakoris intention for him By Yamanoue Okura, the Governor of Cbikuzen
Preface otomo Kumakori was a man of Mashiki County in the province of Higo. At the age of eighteen, on the seventeenth day of the sixth month of the third year of Tcmpyo (731), he became a retainer in the service of the governor of that province, who had been appointed Bearer of the Sum6 Wrestlers, and set off for the capital. But-could it have been Heavens will?-unfortunately he contracted a disease on the road, and died at the Takaba horse statlon in Saeki County in the province of Aki. Just before his death Kumakori gave a long sigh and said, I have heard it recounted that, Mans body, a temporary assemblage of the elements, is easily destroyed, and the course of life, like bubbles on the water, is hard to hold back. Thus the thousand saints have all passed away, and the hundred sages could not remain in this world. How, then, could a mere common man iike myself, of mean station, possibly escape from death? But I am concerned about my aged parents, both of them alive in their humble hut, who pass their days waiting for my return. Naturally their hearts will be rent with grief. If I do not return when they expect me to, 1 know their tears will be enough to blind them. 0 my father, how sorrowful for you! 0 my mother, how painful for you! It does not bother me that 1 myself must tread the road of death. I only lament the hardships my parents will face when they are left behind without me. Today we must part for eternity-in what life will we ever meet again?

Kumakori then composed six poems, and died. The poems: X86 To go up to the palace swept with sunlight, I left my mothers arms, my mother with her milk-full breasts, and set out for the depths of lands 1 have never known, and crossed beyond a hundred folds of mountains. Talking with my companions and wondering how soon I could set my eyes on the capitalthen pain struck my body, I collapsed on a corner of the roadroad like a jewelled spearand, plucking grass and spreading gromwell for my bed, I lay down, and as I lay I sighed with longing: If I were in my homeland, my father would hold and nurse me; if I were in my house, my mother would hold and nurse me. The world, it seems, comes but to thismust I end my life falling by the roadside like a dog?

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g91 Must I depart for eternity, leaving behind my father and mother, whom I can never see twice in a single lifetime?: 892

In which direction will I lcnvc, my soul darkened, parting from my mother, with her milk-full breasts, unable to meet her eyes? 888 How can I make my way through the darkness down the long road I have never known? 1 have no provisions. 889 If I were home and my mother held and nursed me, it would soothe my heart, even-if I mustwere I to die. 890 0 my father and mother who must be waiting for me, counting the days since I went away and thinking, Today! Today!

Dialog of the Desritute

with tanka On nights when rain falls, mixed with wind, on nights when snow falls, mixed with rain, I am cold. And the cold leaves me helpless: I lick black lumps of salt and suck up melted dregs of rake. Coughing and sniffling, I smooth my uncertain WISPS of heard, I am proudI know no man is better than me. But I am cold. I pull up my hempen nightclothes and throw on every scrap

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It has been recounted down through time since the age of the gods: that this land of Yamato is a land of imperial deities stern majesty, a land blessed by the sprrtt of words. Every man of the present sees it before his eyes and knows it to be true. Men fill this land with their numbers, but among them our Emperor, sovereign of the high-shining sun, a very god, in the fullness of his love, chose for this mission you, the son of a house that governs the realm under heaven. And with the favor of his great command, you have been sent to the distant borders of China. As you set out, all the mighty deities that, in their godliness, abide by the shore and by the offing, there to rule the plain of waters,

lead you by the prow of your ship. And the rnighty gods of heaven and earth, first among them the Supreme Spirit of the Land of Yamato, soar from th.- distant heavenly skies to watch over you. And on the day when, your mission accomplished, you return, again the mighty gods shall take the prow of your ship in their noble hands and bring you straight as a black rope stretched from Chika Cape to your berth by 6tomos noble beach. Go without hindrance, go with good fortune, and quickly return!
895

and 896

Envoys

I shall sweep tire beach clean by the field of pines at Otomos noble cove, and stand there waiting for you. Quickly return!

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When I hear the news that the imperial craft has berthed at Naniwa Cove, I shall run to greet you, my waistcord trailing loose.

On the third month, first day, of the fifth year of Tempy6, you visited me at my borne. 1 present you this on the third. From Yamanoue Okura, with humility To His Excellency the Ambassador to China An essay lamenting his own long illness By Yamanoue Okura
In my private thoughts it occurs to me that even those men who obtain their livelihood by hunting, morning and evening, on the mountains and the plains are able to make their way through life without calamity (I speak of those who, with bow and arrow in their hands, ignoring the six fasting days on which the taking of life is forbidden, slay every animal they come across, regardless of young or old, pregnant or not). Even those who fish day and night in the rivers and on the sea are vouchsafed their fortune and their safe passage through life (I speak of the fisherman and the diving woman, each with his or her effort of work, the man clutching his bamboo pole who angles skillfully over the waves, the woman, with scythe and basket tied to her waist, who dives into the sea to pluck life from the depths). But I, since the day I was born until today, have intended to do only good deeds and have had no thoughts of doing evil (I have followed the teachings to eschew the various evil deeds and to perform the various good deeds). I

have reverenced the Three Treasures-Hucidh~~, Law, and . Priesthood-, foregoing not a day of effort (reading the sutras every day and atoning for my sins). I have venerated the myriad deities, neglecting not an evening (dotng homage to the various deities of heaven and earth). Oh how shameful! What crime have I committed, that I should meet with this dreadful disease! (Is this for past crimes, or is it the result of present transgressions? How could I, who am innocent of sin, be struck down with this illness?) Many are the months and years since I first contracted this disease (it has been more than ten years). I am presently seventy-four years old. My hair is spotted with white, and my muscles have lost their strength. And now to the sufferings of old age, now to those burdens has been added this affliction of sickness. This is what the proverbs must mean when they speak of pouring salt into a painful wound, of cutting off the edges of a stick already too short. I cannot move my four limbs, my hundred joints all ache, my body feels terribly heavy, as if I were carrying a load of a hundred and fifty pounds. lh Clutching a strip of cloth, I try to pull myself up, only to collapse like a bird with broken wings. Leaning on my cane and trying to walk, I am like an old donkey whose legs are gone. My body is sunk deeply in the vulgar, and my heart is tainted with the dirt of this world. Therefore I wished to know where affliction lurks and where the curse of retribution is hidden. I went to inquire at every sorcerers gate, to every shamans chamber. Whether true or false, 1 followed all their instructions, never failing to hang prayer cloths and offer invocations. But the pangs of disease only 1
*The on~mdl text has kmwkl ($!]I;) . ,1 cuno~ts combinattw~ o f Iwo