Session 05—Th, Sep 8: Lyricism I (development of lyrical subjectivity in early Japanese poetry as seen in the the Man'yōshū)

Topics

❖ the appearance of lyrical poetry in the 7th-8th c.
❖ Nukata
❖ Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Thoughts—read before class, revisit for tests

I will likely expand on this later, but basically this session introduces a predisposition in early Japanese poetry towards nuanced emotional, subjective statements that bind closely to natural scenery. I have included in the "anthology" poems from various point in time to show how fully this tradition was embraced.

Two bSpace pdf files that begin "Manyo Kokin Shinkokin..." cover the basics of the three major poetry collections we mention in class.

Required—to be completed for today's session

Read this first, to get an overview of the Manyoshu, and for Levy's argument on the development of lyricism—

✓ Manyo-Introduction (Levy) [bSpace, PDF]

Read this, then, to read poems by Nukata that are not broken up by critical commentary, and by a different translator—

✓ Manyo-Nukata poem selection [bSpace, PDF]

Read this, then, for reasons similar to the above and because I think this set of poems in particular shows the power of Hitomaro's expression—

✓ Manyo-Hitomaro poem selection [bSpace, PDF]

This final reading is from a collection of poems by a poet and, like the Aoki Shigeru visual interpretation of the Kojiki "love at first sight" scene, shows an artist's way of reading and appreciating literature of his country. I've selected poems with the common thread of strongly about the composers feelings while often using natural imagery to make those emotions more subtle and nuanced. Finally, the short commentaries might help some practice interpreting Japanese poems of this kind.

✓ Lyrical poems 9th-20th c [bSpace, PDF]

Multimedia notes

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Links

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Other

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Terms and such mentioned this day that are not otherwise in an obvious place on the web site, the powerpoints, the assinged reading, etc. (to help with capturing items mentioned, perhaps quickly, in class, not for test purposes)

chōka (long poem) 5-7(n), 5-7-7, tanka (short poem) also called waka ("Japanese" poem: 5-7-5-7-7), sōmon, love poems (相聞), banka, laments (挽歌) also, hanka, "envoys" (反歌) the tanka that follow long poems and restate something within them