Generally, there are six poetic styles. The same could also be said of Chinese poetry.
One of those styles is an indirect poem. Composed when indirectly speaking to the Ōsasagi Emperor:
In Naniwa Bay,
the trees are abloom!
Dormant through winter,
now it is spring and
these flowers blossom!
難波津に 咲くやこの花 冬ごもり 今は春べと 咲くやこの花 | Naniwazu ni saku ya ko no hana fuyugomori ima wa harube to saku ya ko no hana |
Notes
The excerpt above is from the Japanese preface (仮名序 Kanajo) of Kokinshū 古今集 (Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern; 905), the first imperial collection of Japanese poetry. The preface itself is attributed to Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之 (866 or 872−954; Hyakunin Isshu 35), one of the principal compilers of Kokinshū, while the commentary in square brackets and smaller font is of an early anonymous commentator.
Wani 王仁 is thought to have been a Chinese scholar, who arrived to Japan from Kingdom of Paekche (Baekje) in the Korean Peninsula during the reign of Emperor Ōjin (応神天皇 Ōjin Tennō; reigned from 270). He was employed as a tutor of Crown Prince Uji no Wakiiratsuko 菟道稚郎子 (dates unknown), but the prince never ascended the throne.
The Ōsasagi Emperor (大鷦鷯天皇 Ōsasagi no mikado) is Emperor Nintoku (仁徳天皇 Nintoku tennō; ascended the throne in 313) − son of Emperor Ōjin and younger half-brother of Prince Uji no Wakiiratsuko. While no firm dates are assigned to reigns of either Ōjin or Nintoku, chronicles of those reigns are considerably less mythical and record many more practical matters than records of the earlier reigns, suggesting the emperors could have been historical figures.
In the poem,
- Naniwazu 難波津 is Naniwa harbor. Naniwa 難波 is an old name for the vicinity of present-day Ōsaka 大阪.
- Ko no hana can be taken to mean either “these flowers” (この花 kono hana) or “flowers of the trees” (木の花 ko no hana). In the translation, I have tried to incorporate both meanings. Although the early commentary states the flowers are plum (Japanese apricot; 梅 ume) blossoms, there is also a theory that the flowers are cherry (桜 sakura) blossoms.
- Harube is an old word for “spring” or “springtime”.