月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香かな tsuki ni tōku oboyuru fuji no iroka kana Buson - In the moonlight, the color and scent of the wisteria, seems so far away
This is a philological study of the haiku 月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香かな (tsuki ni tōku oboyuru fuji no iroka kana), given to Buson. It spans from its earliest known witness, a manuscript copy of 1900, and examines an unsettled 1903 argument over what the verse's one crux is far from, and four renderings into English that take both sides of it.
Abstract
月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香かな, under the moon, the wisteria's color and scent seem far, is Buson's, standing in Shiki's manuscript copy of 1900 and named by every later editor as coming from his posthumous papers, 蕪村遺稿, itself absent from the record. The verse's one crux, what 遠く is far from, was argued at a reading meeting in 1903 and never settled: 鳴雪 read a distance in the geometry of moon and wisteria, 碧梧桐 read the hour's beauty, and 虚子 read the color as blurred by moonlight, the scent carried along only by rhythm. Blyth, the first to render it into English, took both sides across two books, 1949 and 1950; Hamill and Ueda gave two more renderings later, and Ueda's is the first to keep 遠く with the moon rather than with the scent.
Overview
The text. The scroll carries 月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香かな, and every witness has this wording; the writing splits twice and the split does not follow date. 覺ゆる in Shiki's 1900 copy [1], in 紅緑 1904 [2], the 1907 講義 [3], 鳴雪 1909 [4] and the 1910 三家集 [5]; おぼゆる in 岩本 1906 [6], 零余子 1921 [7], 半田 1925 and 1935 [8][9], the 1926 collections [10][11] and the 1928 index [12]. 哉 in Shiki, the 講義, 鳴雪, 零余子 and the index; かな in 紅緑, the 三家集, 半田 and the 1926 名句全集. The scroll's kana form is the form of the editors of 1921 to 1935. The meter is six, seven, five, the first line one over: つ・き・に・と・お・く, お・ぼ・ゆ・る・ふ・じ・の, い・ろ・か・か・な.
The sense. The verse has had one argument, and it was held in a room in 1903. 鳴雪 drew the geometry, moon on one side and wisteria on the other and the poet at the third corner; 碧梧桐 said the geometry is beside the point and the verse praises the hour; 虚子 said the color is blurred by moonlight and seems far, and that the scent is carried along by rhythm; the other two said some real distance from the moon is felt as well [3]. 紅緑 the next year filed it under Buson's love of the word far [2]. 零余子 in 1921 took 碧梧桐's side with the dimness of the moon as the cause: bright, the flowers would seem near; faint, they seem far, and that is the scene [7]. Blyth in 1949 rendered the wisteria far away in the moonlight, and in 1950 far from the moon; the two renderings are the two forks of the 1903 argument, and he took both [13][14]. Nobody has proposed a third reading.
The words. 月に遠く is the crux: far from the moon, or far, under the moon. 紅緑 in 1904 set it among Buson's verses of distance, 春風や堤長うして家遠し and 都に遠き桃の宿, and said 遠き is the poet's own word [2]. おぼゆる, written 覺ゆる, is the classical 覚ゆ, is felt to be, seems. 藤の色香 is the wisteria's color-and-scent, 色香 one word, as 虚子 said in 1903, 唯調子で色香とつゞけた迄, the word is carried by the rhythm; so scent seems far is not to be pressed [3]. かな is the exclamation; the sentence has no verb but seems. As words the line says: Under the moon, far off they seem, the wisteria's color and scent.
The verse in English. Blyth gave the verse's earliest known English rendering in 1949 and a second in 1950, taking both sides of the particle [13][14]. Hamill in 1995, Ueda in 1998 and Lowenstein in 2007 gave three more; Ueda's is the first to keep 遠く with the moon rather than with the scent, and Lowenstein's follows him [15][16][17].
The historical record
Edo. 蕪村遺稿, the posthumous papers. The source by 半田's tag and the 1907 講義's base text [8].
1900. 正岡子規, 俳家全集, his manuscript copy of the poets, the Buson volume, 春草. 人なき日藤に培ふ法師かな, 藤の花あやしき夫婦休みけり (新五子), 月に遠く覺ゆる藤の色香哉 (新五子), then the waka 柴の戸にあけくれかゝる白雲を. The earliest witness here, in Shiki's hand, with his source marker under the verse [1].
1903, printed 1907. 内藤鳴雪, 河東碧梧桐, 高浜虚子, 蕪村遺稿講義, the record of a reading meeting. 鳴雪氏曰: an evening with the wisteria in bloom, まだ全く夜に入らぬ時分, not yet fully night; the moon just up on one side, the wisteria trellis opposite, the poet seeing the flowers lit from the side, 月と藤と作者とは三角形をして居る, moon, wisteria and poet make a triangle. 碧梧桐氏曰: the positions do not matter; 其時分其月の光りで見た藤の花の色も香もが一番よい, at that hour, in that moon's light, the wisteria's color and scent are at their best, and that is what 月に遠く覺ゆる says. 虛子曰, so printed: no need for dusk; at night the color is blurred in moonlight and seems far, 香が月に遠く覺えるといふのはをかしいが、其は唯調子で色香とつゞけた迄であらう, that the scent should seem far from the moon is odd, but that is no more than the rhythm carrying 色香 along. 鳴、碧、兩氏曰: too extreme; some real distance from the moon is felt too. The record moves on without a ruling [3].
1904. 佐藤紅緑, 蕪村俳句評釈. 彼れは又た遠景へ遠音及び凡て「遠き」といふ文字に大なる趣味を有せり, he also had a great taste for far views, far sounds, and the word "far" in every use, with this verse among the examples [2].
1906, 1909, 1910. 岩本梓石, 蕪村俳句全集 標註; 鳴雪, 俳句作法; 俳諧三家集. The verse in three collections and manuals without comment, 覺ゆる in two of them [6][4][5].
1921. 長谷川零余子, 蕪村俳句全集 校註解釈. Under 藤, the verse as 月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香哉 with note 五: 日の暮れる時分に月が仄かに出て居た。その月が明らかなれば藤の花も近くあるやうに感じようが、ぼんやりして居るために遠くにある感じがする、その景色が一番よいとの意, at dusk a faint moon was out; were the moon bright the wisteria would seem near, but because it is dim the flowers seem far, and that scene is the best. The note before it, 三, on a hillside wisteria, belongs to 人なき日藤に培ふ法師かな [7].
1925 and 1935. 半田良平, 蕪村俳句全集 季題別 and 季題別年代附. Under 藤: うつむけに春うちあけて藤の花 closes the 句集 verses with 右三句、句集, then 月に遠くおぼゆる藤の色香かな (遺稿), then 藤の花あやしき夫婦休みけり. The editor's tag is the plainest statement of the source [8][9].
1926, 1928. 一茶蕪村名句全集; 蕪村俳句集; the 日本俳書大系 index. The verse in two more collections and an index, おぼゆる in all three [10][11][12].
The dictionaries today. kotobank's page for 与謝蕪村 gives the poet's dates and does not quote the verse [18].
The attribution. Buson's at every witness that names a poet, from Shiki's copy in 1900 to Blyth, with no rival [1]. The source is the 蕪村遺稿, the papers gathered after his death: 半田良平 tags the verse (遺稿) against the 句集 verses before it, 右三句、句集, and the 1907 講義 is a reading of the 遺稿 leaf by leaf, this verse from its spring section [8][3]. Shiki's 1900 copy writes (新五子) under this verse and under the one before it, 藤の花あやしき夫婦休みけり, which names a source of his own, perhaps the 新五子稿 [1]. No witness dates the verse; Blyth does not; the collections file it under the season word 藤 alone.
What is not a source. The 1907 record is the readers' argument, not the poet's intention. Shiki's marker names a source the record does not carry further. No witness gives an occasion or a date.
The verse in English
1949 and 1950. R. H. Blyth, Haiku, volume 1, Eastern Culture, page 339; volume 2, Spring, page 102, Hokuseido Press, Tokyo. In the first, among a few verses given as examples: In the moonlight, / The colour and scent of the wistaria / Seem far away. In the second, romanized Tsuki ni toku / oboyuru fuji no / iroka kana and rendered The scent and colour / Of the wistaria / Seem far from the moon, after 都に遠き桃の宿, the capital far away, among Buson's verses with the same feeling of distance. Blyth's only two renderings, and they read the particle two ways [13][14].
1995. Sam Hamill, The Sound of Water: Haiku by Bashō, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets, Shambhala. In pale moonlight / the wisteria's scent / comes from far away [15].
1998. Makoto Ueda, The Path of Flowering Thorn: The Life and Poetry of Yosa Buson, Stanford University Press, page 127. so far from the moon— / the color and fragrance / of wisteria, romaji tsuki ni toku oboyuru fuji no iroka kana, cited to the complete works 1: 461, and set among the hokku Buson brought to a poetry group's meetings, at least twenty-seven, of which this is one of three examples [16].
Ueda's so far from the moon is the first rendering to keep 遠く with the moon rather than with the scent.
2007. Lowenstein, Classic Haiku, Watkins, page 138. So distant from the moon — / the colour and scent / of wisteria blossom., under the poet's name; the second rendering to keep 遠く with the moon [17].
Today. The house page carries no English rendering of its own; it glosses 色香 as one word, which is right, and reads the verse as the wisteria holding color and scent at a distance under the moon. A rendering of this line has one choice to make and cannot avoid it: far from the moon or far, under the moon; Blyth made it both ways.
A reading
I read the verse with 零余子 and 碧梧桐: the faintness of the moon is what makes the flowers seem far, and the verse praises the dimness. 虚子's aside is the philological point worth keeping, that 色香 is one word by rhythm and scent seems far is not to be pressed; Blyth's far from the moon takes the other fork and is a legitimate reading of the particle. The text, the attribution and the romaji stand.
References
- 正岡子規 写『俳家全集』, 1900, 春草. National Diet Library pid 2546172, scan 89. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2546172/1/89
- 佐藤紅緑『蕪村俳句評釈』, 1904. National Diet Library pid 875716, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875716/1/19
- 内藤鳴雪, 河東碧梧桐, 高浜虚子『蕪村遺稿講義』, 1907, pp. 136–137. National Diet Library pid 875701, scan 72. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875701/1/72
- 鳴雪『俳句作法』, 1909. National Diet Library pid 875595, scan 23. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875595/1/23
- 『俳諧三家集』, 1910. National Diet Library pid 875352, scan 74.
- 岩本梓石 編『蕪村俳句全集 標註』, 1906. National Diet Library pid 875714, scan 37. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875714/1/37
- 長谷川零余子 編『蕪村俳句全集 校註解釈』, 1921, pp. 40–41. National Diet Library pid 968346, scan 33. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/968346/1/33
- 半田良平 編『蕪村俳句全集 季題別』, 1925, p. 25. National Diet Library pid 964212, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/964212/1/19
- 半田良平 編『蕪村俳句全集 季題別年代附』, 1935. National Diet Library pid 1090303, scan 17. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1090303/1/17
- 『一茶蕪村名句全集』, 1926. National Diet Library pid 968909, scan 23. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/968909/1/23
- 『蕪村俳句集』, 1926. National Diet Library pid 1019573, scan 64.
- 『日本俳書大系』index, 1928. National Diet Library pid 1179400, scan 229.
- R. H. Blyth, Haiku, vol. 1, Eastern Culture, Hokuseido Press, Tokyo, 1949, p. 339.
- R. H. Blyth, Haiku, vol. 2, Spring, Hokuseido Press, Tokyo, 1950, p. 102.
- Sam Hamill, The Sound of Water: Haiku by Bashō, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets, Shambhala, 1995.
- Makoto Ueda, The Path of Flowering Thorn: The Life and Poetry of Yosa Buson, Stanford University Press, 1998, p. 127.
- Tom Lowenstein, Classic Haiku, Watkins, London, 2007, p. 138.
- 「与謝蕪村」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/与謝蕪村