久方の光のどけき春の日にしづ心なく花の散るらむ hisakata no hikari nodokeki haru no hi ni shizugokoro naku hana no chiruramu Ki no Tomonori - On a calm spring day of gentle light, Why do the blossoms fall so restlessly?
Tomonori's poem of the falling cherry, the why every commentator hears though no word says it, and the two readings of its しづ心.
Abstract
久方の光のどけき春の日にしづ心なく花の散るらむ, in which, on a spring day of calm, gentle light, the cherry blossoms fall with no quiet in their hearts, is the poem the Kokin wakashū 古今和歌集 (905–914) gives to Ki no Tomonori 紀友則, one of its own compilers, under the heading さくらの花のちるをよめる, composed on the cherry blossoms falling: number 84, in the second book, the poems of late spring, and the thirty-third of the Hyakunin isshu 百人一首 [1][2][3][4]. Its last word, らむ, holds no word for why, and the 日本国語大辞典 names this very poem when it says that the sense of that らむ cannot be settled [5]; yet every commentary quoted in this history, the earliest of them a print of 1662, reads a why into it, and so does every English rendering quoted here [6][7][8]. Its しづ心 is read two ways, voiced, shizugokoro, and unvoiced, shizu kokoro, and each has an authority behind it [7][9][10]. I read the line as a question that the scene asks rather than the grammar, as Kagawa Kageki 香川景樹 put it in 1823: on so still a day, why do the blossoms alone hurry?
Overview
The sense. 久方の is a pillow word, 枕詞, whose meaning and attachment are unknown, 語義およびかかり方未詳 in 精選版 日本国語大辞典; its sense ⑥, attaching to the sun as a body in the sky and to 光, light, cites this poem as its first example: 天空にあるものとして、天体の「日」に、天体に関係あるものとして「光」にかかり [11]. The light is のどけき, from のどけし, which the 日国 enters in six senses; its sense ②, 天気がよくて、静かで穏やかなさま, of the weather: fine, still and mild, marked a season word of spring, cites this poem first [12]. しづ心 is 静かな心。落ち着いた心, a quiet heart, a settled heart, in the 日国 [9]. 花 is the cherry, by the heading [1]. So the line says: in the light of a spring day, fine and still, the blossoms fall with no settled heart.
The words. The 日国 heads しづ心 as しずごころ, 「しずこころ」とも, also shizukokoro; デジタル大辞泉 heads it しずこころ, 「しずごころ」とも; JMdict gives しずごころ, then しずこころ, calm mind; placid temperament [9][13]. The 日国's article on らむ quotes this poem in its 語誌, note (4): 「らむ」の意味については、推量説、詠嘆説、婉曲説などがあるが、いずれとも決しがたい, on the sense of this らむ there are the views that it conjectures, that it exclaims, and that it softens, and none of them can be settled [5]. デジタル大辞泉 records, under 久方の, that one view takes the word in this poem to mean the sun itself: 一説に「日」そのものの意とする [11].
The text in English. Helen Craig McCullough, in 1985: On this springtime day / when the celestial orb / diffuses mild light, / why should the cherry blossoms / scatter with unquiet hearts? [8]. Her celestial orb is the reading of 久方 as the sun, and her why is the one the commentaries supply [11][6].
The historical record
905–914. The Kokinshū, book two, late spring. The Kokinshū, ordered by imperial command in 905 and finished, as the 日国 has it, about 914, names Tomonori among its four compilers [2]. In the typeset of 1901–03, 『国歌大観』, its second book, 春歌下, gives the heading さくらの花のちるをよめる, the poet 紀友則, the number 八四, and the poem 久かたのひかりのどけき春の日に靜心なく花のちるらむ, between 83 (櫻花とく散りぬとも) and 85 (藤原好風) [1]. A manuscript of the Kokinshū copied in 1471 has it in the same place: on one leaf the heading's last words, 花のちるをよめる, close the page after 83, and on the next the poem fills the first column alone, from 久方の to ちるらん, with the poet's name in small kana beside it, which I read as きのとものり [14]. His dates are not known, 生没年未詳 in the 日国 and デジタル大辞泉 and 生没年不詳 in the 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, which still says that he did not see the editing through to its end and died about 907: 編集を最後まで果たさず，907年（延喜7）ころに死去した [3].
The Hundred Poets. The Hyakunin isshu sets the poem thirty-third, as デジタル大辞泉's list of its hundred poems gives it, under the number 33: ひさかたの光のどけき春の日にしづ心なく花の散るらむ（紀友則） [4].
The why, supplied, in the commentaries. The 百人一首抄, Hosokawa Yūsai 細川幽斎's commentary on the Hundred Poets as printed in 1662 with Katō Bansai 加藤磐斎's additions, says that the reading supplies the word 何とて, why, and calls that the oral teaching: さて何とてと云字をそへてみるが口伝なり [6]. It then asks whose the unsettled heart is: 為家卿に此心ハ人の心か花の心かと人の尋しに。いつれにてもしかるへしと答られしとなり, when someone asked Lord Tameie whether this heart was the person's or the blossoms', he answered that either would serve [6]. Keichū 契沖's 百人一首改観抄, in the Kyoto print that the 国書データベース dates 1748, reads a reproach: 花はかりあはたゝしくちるをとかめていふなり, it reproaches the blossoms alone for falling in haste, and ends 何としてしつ心なくして散そとあやしむなり, it wonders why they fall without a settled heart [15]. Kamo no Mabuchi 賀茂真淵, in his 古今和歌集打聴 as the first volume of his collected works prints it in 1903, finds the why in the poem's two halves: 上に長閑き春の日にと云立てさて下にしづ心なく花の散らんとうたがへるにて上下の間に何とてとがめてうたがふ心はおのづからこもれるなり, having set out "on a still spring day" above, it wonders below that "the blossoms fall without a settled heart," and between the two the heart that asks why, reproaching, is held of itself [16]. Motoori Norinaga 本居宣長's 古今和歌集遠鏡, in its edition of 1894, renders the line ドウ云ヿデ花ハ此樣ニ。サワ〳〵ト心急ウチルヿヤラ, why is it that the blossoms fall like this, so restless, in such a hurry [17]. Kageki's 百首異見 of 1823 sets the scene, 何の上もさるのとけき中にちるはなの独あわたゝしけにひまなきをいかてかくハといへる也, amid such stillness over everything, the falling blossoms alone are hurried and never at rest, and the poem says: how is it so?, and then grants that the why is there while moving it out of the grammar: すへてかく本末もとれる歌ハ疑ひのこゝろおのつから其中にこもりてあなかちてにをはにかゝはらさる也, in every poem whose two halves turn like this, the doubt is held within it of itself, and does not depend on the particles, and いかてちるらんの意は言外に聞えてさらにまかはぬ事也, the sense "how is it that they fall" is heard beyond the words and cannot be mistaken [7].
1823 and 1854. しづ心, voiced and unvoiced. Kageki, in the same note, rules on the voicing: しつ心の心を濁て唱ふへし今清てよむハ謬也, the こころ of しづ心 should be sung voiced; to read it unvoiced, as is done now, is an error, because しづ心 is one word, the opposite of あた心 and うかれ心, a fickle heart, a wandering heart: しつ心ハあた心うかれ心なとの反にて落つき静りたるをいふ [7]. So in 1823 the unvoiced reading was in use, by his own report. The 古今和歌集読曲, a reading guide that writes out every poem of the Kokinshū with voicing marks, catalogued as the teaching of the emperor Reigen 霊元天皇 recorded by Karasuma Mitsuhide 烏丸光栄, writes the line 志づ゛こゝろなく花のちるらん, with the voicing mark beside づ and none beside こ [10]. Its colophon carries a note signed 光栄 and dates the copy to the winter of 安政元, 1854 [18]. A guide that marks the voicing inside this very word and leaves こ bare reads shizu kokoro, as I read its marks; it states no rule at this poem [10].
The poem in English
1899. Clay MacCauley. Hyakunin-isshu (Single Songs of a Hundred Poets), part IV of volume XXVII of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, issued December 1899, poem XXXIII: Hisakata no / Hikari nodokeki / Haru no hi ni / Shizu-kokoro naku / Hana no chiruran. His literal translation puts the why in brackets, as a word he supplies: In the days of spring, (when) long-enduring light is cheering; (why), without quiet mind (i.e. impatiently), (do) flowers scatter?; his metrical version, titled THE FLEETING LIFE OF FLOWERS, ends Why, with ceaseless, restless haste / Falls the cherry's new-blown bloom?, and his note adds Chiruran is read as a four syllabled word, chi-ru-ra-n [19].
1961. Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner. Japanese Court Poetry notes that only the fourth line of the poem does not begin with an "h" sound, and reads an answer in the question: He attributes to the flowers an unsettled heart that is a reflection of his own regret at the loss of beauty [20].
1985. Helen Craig McCullough. Kokin Wakashū, poem 84, On cherry blossoms scattering, with the poem in romaji as shizugokoro naku and the rendering quoted above [8].
1993. Donald Keene. Seeds in the Heart gives the poem as shizu kokoro naku, renders Why do the cherry blossoms / So restlessly scatter down?, observes that four of the five lines begin with an h, and the fifth with sh, and sends the reader in a note to Brower and Miner's pages [21].
Today. The work order's English is the house's own: On a calm spring day of gentle light, why do the blossoms fall so restlessly? It carries the why, as every commentary and English rendering quoted here does, and it gives the restlessness to the blossoms, one of the two answers 為家 allowed [6]. Its romaji, shizugokoro, is the voiced reading, the one the 日国 and JMdict put first and Kageki prescribed [9][13][7].
A reading
The poem says only this: in the still light of a spring day, the blossoms fall with no settled heart. It asks nothing in words; the 日国 is right that its らむ cannot be pinned to one sense [5]. But I read the why in it, with every commentator quoted here, and I read it where Kageki put it, in the scene: a day so fine and still that nothing in it should hurry, and the blossoms alone do [7]. The heart that is unsettled I take as the blossoms', as the line says, and I hear in it what 為家 allowed, that the watcher's heart goes with them [6]. For the voicing I sign shizugokoro, the one word Kageki argued for and the 日国 and JMdict put first, and I keep shizu kokoro beside it, the reading Kageki says was in use in his day and, as I read its marks, the 読曲's [7][9][13][10]. Signed, 典.
Notes
The heading. The 1901–03 typeset reads さくらの花のちるをよめる; the 1471 manuscript's heading is read here only to its last words, 花のちるをよめる [1][14].
散るらむ and ちるらん. The 1901–03 typeset ends the poem ちるらむ; the 1471 manuscript, the 1748 print of Keichū and the 1823 print of Kageki end it ちるらん, as MacCauley's chiruran does [1][14][15][7][19].
MacCauley's date. Part IV's own wrapper prints DECEMBER, 1899, and the Society's list of its publications gives Vol. XXVII, Part IV, December 1899; the title leaf of the bound volume XXVII prints 1900 [19].
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
References
- 『国歌大観』 正編, 松下大三郎・渡辺文雄 編, 1901–03, 古今和歌集 巻第二, p. 3, scan 5, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/873348/1/5
- 「古今和歌集」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, デジタル大辞泉 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8F%A4%E4%BB%8A%E5%92%8C%E6%AD%8C%E9%9B%86-63702
- 「紀友則」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%B4%80%E5%8F%8B%E5%89%87-51362
- 「小倉百人一首」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B0%8F%E5%80%89%E7%99%BE%E4%BA%BA%E4%B8%80%E9%A6%96-40095
- 「らむ」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 語誌 (4), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%89%E3%82%80-656539
- 細川幽斎 注, 加藤磐斎 増補, 『百人一首抄』, 1662, scan 10, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2567674/1/10
- 香川景樹, 『百首異見』, print of 1823, 東京大学総合図書館 copy, canvases 128–129, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100369357/128
- Helen Craig McCullough, Kokin Wakashū: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry, with Tosa Nikki and Shinsen Waka, Stanford University Press, 1985, poem 84, p. 30, read on the house's shelf.
- 「静心」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9D%99%E5%BF%83-519696
- 『古今和歌集読曲』, 霊元天皇 伝, 烏丸光栄 記, manuscript copy, 宮内庁書陵部 鷹・83, canvas 29, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100218250/29
- 「久方の」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B9%85%E6%96%B9%E3%81%AE-609679
- 「長閑けし」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%95%B7%E9%96%91%E3%81%91%E3%81%97-597105
- JMdict (EDRDG), entry 1750850, 静心, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/%E9%9D%99%E5%BF%83
- 『古今和謌集』, manuscript, 文明3 (1471), 国文学研究資料館 99-3, 巻第二, canvases 24–25, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/200003051/25
- 契沖, 『百人一首改観抄』, 樋口宗武 追考, 勝村治右衛門, Kyoto, dated 1748 (延享五刊) by the 国書データベース's work record, canvas 77, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100010727/77
- 賀茂真淵, 『古今和歌集打聴』 巻第二, in 『賀茂真淵全集』 第一, 国学院編輯部 編, 1903, p. 920, scan 466, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992918/1/466
- 本居宣長, 『古今和歌集遠鏡』, 山崎久作 頭書, 1894, p. 6, scan 40, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/873302/1/40
- 『古今和歌集読曲』, the colophon, canvas 134, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100218250/134
- Clay MacCauley, "Hyakunin-isshu (Single Songs of a Hundred Poets)", Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. XXVII, part IV, poem XXXIII, pp. 45–46, read on the house's shelf, whose part IV wrapper prints DECEMBER, 1899 (the Harvard copy, HathiTrust hvd.hnu8nk, seq. 3); the Society's list of publications, Vol. XXVII. Part IV. December, 1899, at the Internet Archive, leaf n839, and the bound volume's title leaf, VOL. XXVII, 1900, leaf n9. https://archive.org/details/transactionsasi09japagoog
- Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner, Japanese Court Poetry, Stanford University Press, 1961, pp. 192–193, read on the house's shelf.
- Donald Keene, Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century, Henry Holt, 1993, p. 269 and note 81, p. 275, read on the house's shelf.