滝の音は | taki no oto wa |
絶えて久しく | taete hisashiku |
なりぬれど | narinuredo |
名こそ流れて | na koso nagarete |
なほ聞こえけれ | nao kikoekere |
Major Counselor Kintō
In the middle of Heian period (平安時代 Heian jidai; 794–1192) in Japan, there was a politician more influential than anyone else, Fujiwara no Michinaga 藤原道長 (966–1027), and there was his cultural counterpart, Fujiwara no Kintō 藤原公任 (966–1041).
Kintō, often called Major Counselor of the Fourth Avenue (四条大納言 Shijō no dainagon), was member of the Onomiya 小野宮 line of the prominent Fujiwara 藤原 clan, and his parents were Regent (関白 kanpaku) Fujiwara no Yoritada 藤原頼忠 (924–989) and Princess Genshi (厳子女王 Genshi joō; dates uncertain), granddaughter of Emperor Daigo (醍醐天皇 Daigo tennō; 885–930). Fujiwara no Tadahira 藤原忠平 (880−949; Hyakunin Isshu 26) was both his and Michinaga’s great-grandfather.
Kintō’s lineage was prominent, he rose to the Senior Second Rank (正二位 shōnii) and the position of Provisional Major Counselor (権大納言Gon dainagon), while his sister Fujiwara no Junshi 藤原遵子 (also read as Nobuko; 957−1017) went to become Empress Consort (中宮 chūgū) of Emperor En’yū (円融天皇 En’yū tennō; 959−991, reigned 969−984), was known as the Shijō Empress or Shijō no miya 四条宮 and for a time Kintō served as master of her household. But by the time he reached his highest career positions, the meteoric rise of Michinaga had already taken place and therefore Kintō’s greatest influence was not political but cultural.
Kintō’s artistic talents were numerous and encompassed not only composition of Japanese waka but also poetry in Chinese (漢詩 kanshi) and music. From his poetic début in 982, he participated in numerous poetic events, composing for competitions and folding screens (屏風 byōbu), and one of the occasions where Kintō’s poetic genius particularly stood out is described in a historical tale, Ōkagami 大鏡 (The Great Mirror), which relates an outing on the Ōi River (大堰川 Ōigawa) in Saga 嵯峨, Ukyō-ku 右京区 of modern Kyōto 京都 [comments in square brackets are my own]:
Michinaga arranged a boating excursion on the Ōi River one year, setting aside one craft for guests who were skilled in the composition of Chinese verse, another for expert musicians, and a third for outstanding waka poets. When Kintō arrived, His Lordship [Michinaga] sent someone to invite him to choose his own vessel.
“I would prefer the Japanese poetry boat,” Kintō said. He composed this poem:
Ogurayama |
| Chill blows the gale |
Arashi no kaze no |
| From Ogurayama |
Samukereba |
| And Storm Mountain: |
Momiji no nishiki |
| No man but wears a robe |
Kinu hito zo naki. |
| Of autumn-leaf brocade. |
Would anyone deny that he rose to the occasion?
“I ought to have picked the Chinese boat,” Kintō is supposed to have said later. “Think what it would have done for my reputation if I had composed a Chinese poem as good as the Ogurayama waka! It was an unfortunate mistake. I let it go to my head when His Lordship asked me to choose my own company.”
Few are fortunate enough to excel in anything at all. Even in antiquity, there was probably not another universal genius like Kintō.
(trans. McCullough 1980, 113−114)
Kintō’s poetry was preserved in his personal collection Shijō Dainagon Shū 四条大納言集 (Collected Poems of Shijō Major Counselor) or simply Kintō Shū 公任集 (Collected Poems of Kintō). Eighty nine of his compositions were selected for imperial collections, with the first ones included in Shūishū 拾遺集 (Collection of Gleanings, 1005–1007).
But maybe even more important than his poetry was his critical and editorial work. Kintō outlined his poetic ideals in treatises Shinsen Zuinō 新撰髄脳 (Newly Compiled Essentials of Poetry; around 1001) and Waka Kuhon 和歌九品 (Nine Grades of Japanese Poetry; around 1009), and compiled numerous collections of exemplary poems. Among his compilations, there is Shūishō 拾遺抄 (Excerpts of Gleanings; 996−997), which eventually became the basis of the third imperial anthology Shūishū, signalling that Kintō was more or less involved in the compilation. And there is also an exemplary Kingyokushū 金玉集 (Collection of Gold and Jewels; 1007−1011) as well as the famous Sanjūrokuninsen 三十六人撰 (Selections from Thirty Six Poetic Immortals), poets of which became known as the Thirty Six Poetic Immortals (三十六歌仙 Sanjūrokkasen). About a century after Kintō, when Fujiwara no Norikane 藤原範兼 (1107−1165) compiled a similar collection of Late Classical Thirty−Six Poetic Immortals (中古三十六歌仙 Chūko sanjūrokkasen), Kintō was selected as one of them.
Kintō compiled many collections of waka poems, but his compilation of the greatest fame is a selection of Japanese waka and poetry in Chinese (kanshi by Japanese and shi 詩 by Chinese poets), known as Wakan Rōeishū 和漢朗詠集(Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing; around 1012). This collection is thought to have been compiled as a wedding present for Michinaga’s fifth son and Kintō’s son-in-law Fujiwara no Norimichi 藤原教通 (996−1175), who married Kintō’s oldest daughter in 1012. The collection soon became a sort of Chinese poetry handbook and remained such for hundreds of years.
Kintō’s son, Fujiwara no Sadayori 藤原定頼 (995−1045; Hyakunin Isshu 64) was also a poet of some fame, but it seems that it was the daughter who married Norimichi who was Kintō’s great joy. When she died in 1024, Kintō immediately resigned from his post as Major Counselor and two years later took Buddhist vows in Nagatani 長谷, Yamashiro 山城 province (modern Kyōto prefecture [京都府 Kyōto-fu]), where he lived in seclusion for the rest of his life.
Sound of the
Kintō’s poem in Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is a masterful composition but also a curious case for many reasons. Firstly, it is one of very few, possibly the only poem to be included in two imperial waka anthologies; secondly, its setting is incredibly close to to the location where the aforementioned episode of the Ōi River excursion took place, but also to Mount Ogura 小倉, which lends its name to Ogura Hyakunin Isshu − a collection of one hundred poems originally selected for decoration of a villa near Mount Ogura.
When it comes to imperial anthologies of waka, no poem is supposed to be included twice, but this poem is found both in aforementioned Shūishū and in Senzaishū 千載集 (Collection of a Thousand Years; 1187). Most likely the inclusion in Senzaishū is nothing more than a mistake, but it is nevertheless a curious case as such things hardly ever happened.
In both imperial anthologies, the poem is found among miscellaneous compositions, and the headnotes give almost the same information. Shūishū notes: having gone to Daikakuji in Saga, this and that person started composing poems, [Kintō] composed... The Senzaishū headnote is very similar, stating: when many people went to Daikakuji, [Kintō] composed about an old waterfall. Both headnotes point to Daikakuji 大覚寺 − a temple in Saga, near Mount Ogura, which was originally built as a detached palace of Emperor Saga (嵯峨天皇 Saga tennō; 786−842, reigned 809−823), and a waterfall was also constructed. But by Kintō’s time nothing but traces of the said waterfall remained, and so when in the ninth month of the first year of Chōho 長保 (999), Michinaga, Kintō and other court nobles went to see autumn leaves in Saga, Kintō could compose:
滝の音は 絶えて久しく なりぬれど 名こそ流れて なほ聞こえけれ
Taki no oto wa / taete hisashiku / narinuredo / na koso nagarete / nao kikoekere
Sound of the waterfall
has long ceased
but
indeed, its name, it flows,
to be heard as back then.
The flow of the original poem is almost breathtaking, as the alliteration of line-opening ta and na sounds takes the reader from one line to the other, from one verbal association to the next. In the poem taki (waterfall) and nagare (to flow), as well as oto (sound) and kikoe (to be heard, to reach one’s ears) form pairs of associated words or engo 縁語, and the first words of those associated pairs − taki and oto − form the first line taki no oto wa, introducing the main imagery and then continuing to tightly weave the poem together through associations.
The second line, taete hisashiku, means “has ceased long ago”. It starts a chain of three ren’yōkei 連用形 or continuative forms, as verb tayu (to cease; tae), adjective hisashi (a long time; hisashiku), and in the third line − naru (to become, more literally: to change from one state to another; nari) are all used in ren’yōkei. The third line ends with loosely past tense denoting auxiliary verb nu in izenkei 已然形 or perfective form and contrastive particle do.
In the fourth and fifth lines − na koso nagarete / nao kikoekere − na can mean “name”, but also “fame”, and koso emphasises the word. Nagarete means “to flow” and directly brings back the image of waterfall from the opening line. Nao is an adverb meaning “as of old”. It is followed by kikoyu, which is associated with oto of the first line and, like most inflected words before, is used in ren’yōkei (kikoe). Bound by koso, the closing kere is the izenkei of auxiliary keri, which here indicates a realisation.
Interestingly, some versions of Shūishū, including ones in the hand of by Fujiwara no Teika 藤原定家 (1162−1241; Hyakunin Isshu 97), the most likely person to have selected the Hyakunin Isshu poems, record the first line of the poem as taki no ito 滝の糸は, meaning “thread of the waterfall”. In this case, taete becomes an associated word of ito (thread), meaning “to snap, to break”, and then the poem can be rendered in English as:
滝の糸は 絶えて久しく なりぬれど 名こそ流れて なほ聞こえけれ
Taki no ito wa taete hisashiku narinuredo na koso nagarete nao kikoekere
Thread of the waterfall’s flow
has long snapped
but
indeed, its name, it spreads,
to be heard as back then.
Although some copies of Shūishū record the poem as such, Gonki 権記 (Record of the Acting Grand Counselor), diary of famous calligrapher Fujiwara no Yukinari 藤原行成 (972−1027), who was also present at the excursion, notes the first line as taki no oto wa, and suggests this reading, included in Senzaishū and the Hyakunin Isshu, is the original.
In whichever form, even singing of a waterfall that no longer cascades the rocks, Kintō’s poem appears to flow in every single aspect. Audibly − through alliterations and verbally − through engo, even grammatically, as five out of seven inflected forms are in continuative form (ren’yōkei), never once modifying a noun and just once briefly pausing at the end of the third line, only to continue the flow to the end. And so truly, the sound of the Nakoso 名古曽 waterfall, as it is known now because of Kintō’s poem, continues on.