恋すてふ | koi su chō |
わが名はまだき | wa ga na wa madaki |
立ちにけり | tachinikeri |
人知れずこそ | hito shirezu koso |
思ひそめしか | omoisomeshika |
Tadami belonged to Heian 平安 nobility, who were allowed into the imperial palace, but very little is known of his career, or life for that matter. He is known to have served in the imperial palace kitchen in 954, and in 958 he was appointed as senior clerk in the province of Settsu 摂津 (encompassing parts of modern day Ōsaka prefecture [大阪府 Ōsaka-fu] and Hyōgo prececture [兵庫県 Hyōgo-ken]). He ended his career having risen to the Upper Grade of Senior Sixth Rank (正六位上 shō rokui jō), but we are uncertain when that happened.
While serving in essential yet low positions, Tadami was also active as a poet and participated in many poetic events in the court of Emperor Murakami (村上天皇 Murakami tennō; 924–967). Records show that he participated in the Dairi no kikuawase 内裏菊合 (Chrysanthemum Matches at the Inner Palace) of 953, and more famously, at the Tentoku yo’nen dairi uta-awase 天徳四年内裏歌合(Poetry Matches at the Inner Palace in Tentoku 4) of 960, where his loss in the final round has led to the story in Priest Mujū’s 無住 (1227−1312) Shaseki Shū 沙石集 (Collection of Sand and Pebbles; 1279−1283), claiming that Tadami was so flustered by his loss that he stopped eating and died soon after.
Tadami’s personal collection of nearly two hundred poems, Tadami Shū 忠見集 (Collected Poems by Tadami), however, indicates otherwise. It is thought to have been edited by Tadami himself sometime after 960, and seems to suggest he lived and continued composing poems for quite some time after the Poetry Matches at the Inner Palace in Tentoku 4.
Tadami was acknowledged by Fujiwara no Kintō 藤原公任 (966–1041; Hyakunin Isshu 55) and selected as one of the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals (三十六歌仙 Sanjūrokkasen), while his poems were also recognised by inclusion in imperial collections, starting with a single poem in Gosenshū 後撰集 (Later Collection; 951), then fourteen in Shūishū 拾遺集 (Collection of Gleanings; 1005–1007) and twenty-two in later collections. His most famous, however, is the poem from the famed last round of the 960 contest.
Poems on the topic "Love, Concealed" at the Poetry Contest at the Inner Palace and beyond
Tadami’s koi su chō poem in the Hyakunin Isshu was originally included in the first book of love poems in Shūishū with a headnote from a Poetry Contest of Tenryaku Era, but in reality it comes from the already-mentioned Tentoku yo’nen dairi uta-awase (Poetry Matches at the Inner Palace in Tentoku 4), which took place in 960, a few years after the end of Tenryaku 天暦era (947–957).
The poem was composed on a set topic of concealed love (忍ぶ恋 shinobu koi) for the last of twenty rounds of the said contest and was matched against Taira no Kanemori’s 平兼盛 (?−990) shinoburedo しのぶれど composition (Hyakunin Isshu 40). The judge for the competition was Minister of the Left (左大臣 sadaijin), Fujiwara no Saneyori 藤原実頼 (900–970), whom, according to records, found both poems outstanding and yielded to Minamoto no Taka’akira 源高明 (914–983), who was also unable to decide. In the end, Kanemori’s shinoburedo poem was declared winner, because Emperor Murakami seemed to quietly recite it to himself.
Nevertheless, Tadami’s poem was widely recognised for its supreme quality and editors of Shūishū chose the poem to open the anthology’s five books of love poems, placing it first in the first book of love poems, thus awarding it with a position of the highest esteem, while Kanemori’s poem was placed right after.
Of my love, the word
Tadami’s poem plays with contrasts to sing of a bewildered heart, when word of its secret love becomes common knowledge way before it should have. And at the same time, it stands out for its fluidity and articulateness of expression, which makes for candid composition.
Tadami opens his poem with the word love (koi) itself, not trying to hide it, as his topic of concealed love may suggest. And for someone hoping to hide their love, Tadami’s opening lines koi su chō / wa ga na wa madaki / tachinikeri are painfully straightforward, as he states: the rumours that I am in love have already spread.
koi su chō | In the first line, koi (love) is a noun, but it is followed by a classical verb su (to do; the precursor to modern suru) to make it into a verb. This is then followed by a structure to iu (written as to ifu), contracted into tefu (pronounced chō), which can be translated in different ways, depending on the sentence. In this case, it renders the line into something like: [word] that I am in love. |
wa ga na wa madaki | In the second line, wa ga na literally means my (wa ga) name (na), but na also has a meaning of rumours, and it this meaning that is used in the poem. Meanwhile madaki means already, and points towards the following line. |
tachinikeri | The third line is essentially composed of a verb with two auxiliary verbs attached to it. This structure is identical to one used in Kanemori’s shinoburedo poem, with only the base verb being different. Here tachi, the ren’yōkei 連用形 or continuative form of verb tatsu, means to spread [rumour], to become widely known. It is followed by auxiliary verbs: nu (in ren’yōkei, therefore ni), which indicates completeness and emphasises the inability to control something; and keri (in shūshikei 終止形or final form), which in addition to indicating past tense, indicates surprise and exclamation, while the shūshikei singals end of the phrase and therefore, a break in the poem. But before moving on we know the rumour (na) that (chō) I am in love (koi su), has already (madaki) spread (tachinikeri). |
The second half of the poem − hito shirezu koso / omoisomeshika − contrasts with frankness of the first half and takes a more intimate mode. The second half starts with hito shirezu, which can be understood as unknown (shirezu) to people (hito), and it is followed by the gentle omoisomeshika, which says I have just fallen in love or more literally, I have just started to love; but it does not even use the word “love”, and employs omou, which can and here does mean to think fondly of someone, to love, but its main meaning is to think.
In a poem about concealed love, the frank and open first half and the intimate, unknown to people second half may seem like a reversal of sorts and it is, as Tadami is using inversion. His poem breaks at the natural junction of the 5-7-5 upper half (上の句 kami no ku) and the 7-7 lower half (下の句 shimo no ku), essentially reversing their places and thus building interest by placing the actual beginning at the end, that is, grammatically starting the poem from the lower half.
This inversion only highlights the contrast between upper and lower halves of the poem, as the contrasting vocabulary (hito shirezu and na wa <...> tachinikeri; koi su chō and omoisomeshika) is supplemented by grammatical structures. If we were to look at hito shirezu, it is followed by a bound particle koso (bound by izenkei 已然形 or perfective form at the end of next verb, in this case, it is auxiliary shika at the end of omoisomeshika).
hito | shire | zu | koso | omoisome | shika |
noun [(other) people] | shiru [to be known by the world] in mizenkei 未然形or imperfective form | negative auxiliary verb zu in ren’yōkei | binding particle; bound by izenkei of the following verb | omoi-somu [to fall in love; to begin to love] in ren’yōkei | auxiliary verb ki, denoting personal past; in izenkei, bound by koso |
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| Omou [to think fondly of someone] in ren’yōkei + somu [to begin] | |
If this was the end of the poem, koso would simply emphasize hito shirezu, which function its placement near the end of the poem still implies, but in reality, as the poem grammatically continues to the upper half, the bound construction of koso〜shika indicates contrast and therefore adds and an although to the lower half of the translated poem:
Of my love
the word has already
spread, −
although unknown to anyone,
I have only just begun to see her as beloved.
Tadami’s poem is ingenious in the way it flows so clearly yet intriguingly, when he opens his lines with words that immediately imply what is coming, yet reverses his structure to accentuate the contrasts. And so in the end his lyrical speaker is clearly bewildered, left wondering what he is to do now, that the world is aware of his young love.