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| Can be found here |
For this post I want to talk about probably the most famous renga (linked-verse) poet, Monk Sōgi. He
lived from 1421-1502 A.D. He was a Zen priest and a contemporary of Bishop Shinkei, but it does not seem that Sōgi worked directly under any of the poetic
giants of his day. He came from a humble background from a village near Kyōto,
but took Buddhist vows early on in his life. Similar to Saigyō, he spent a lot
of his time travelling from place to place.
Sōgi was an innovator in Japanese poetry and his work set
the stage for later haiku poets. His
two most famous works are Minase sangin
hyakuin and Yuyama sangin hyakuin
(“Three Poets at Minase” and “Three Poets at Yuyama”) which are both 100 poem renga sequences in which three poets compose
together within fairly strict guidelines. I am going to translate some of Minase sequence later.
He seemed to have learned the art of linking verse from
Shinkei and Sōzei, but, like all famous Japanese poets, he is also able to pull
allusions from the greats: Kokinshū
and Shinkokinshū. I chose a few of
his poems to translate, but keep in mind, some of these poems were probably meant to be read as
a longer renga sequence so he may not
have intended them to stand alone.
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| Can be found here |
人を夢とや思いしるらん
すみすてしそのわ胡蝶の宿りにて
宗祇
Perhaps a realization
That mankind is just a dream.
Forgotten about,
The garden is now a home
For butterflies.
Sōgi
This poem is an
allusion to a famous passage written by the Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi. The
passage goes:
Once I Zhuang Zhou dreamt that I was a
butterfly fluttering about happily.
I did not know that I was Zhou. Suddenly, I
awoke, and there I was, Zhou again.
I did not know whether I was Zhou dreaming
that he was a butterfly or a
butterfly dreaming that it was Zhou. Between
Zhou and a butterfly there
must be a distinction. This is called the
transformation of things.
(Tran. Hyun Hochsmann and Yang Guorong)
This kind of
paradox is common in Zhuangzi’s work. I think he is trying to indicate to us
that our individual sense of reality could be arbitrary, and that all things
are interconnected in a metaphysical, yet meaningful, way, or some mumbo jumbo
like that.
Here is a selection of
autumn poems.
涼しさは水よりふかし秋の空
宗祇
A profound coolness,
Makes the ocean seem shallow,
This sky in autumn.
Sōgi
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| Can be found here |
この夕へまだ秋風の宿屋なき旅寝してゆく伊勢のはまをき
宗祇
In this lonely night,
Still the cool autumn wind blows.
With no place to sleep
I must make a humble camp
By the seashore at Ise.
Sōgi
秋の野の露分け衣ゆき帰り花に萎れぬ夕暮れそなき
宗祇
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| Can be found here |
I cross autumn fields
In my dew-laden robes
On my return home.
Flowers woefully withered,
Evening has yet to arrive.
Sōgi
寂しさも身になれはてて山里は秋吹く風の夕暮れもなし
宗祇
Ahh, this loneliness,
I've come to my wit’s end,
In this mountain town,
The icy autumn wind blows
And evening has yet to fall.
Sōgi
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