There was a positive response to my idea in the last thread, so I guess I'll start posting a series of "lessons" (or annotations) on the 百人一首. First I should explain some basics, though, and how I'll be doing these.
What is the 百人一首?
The name means "One hundred people, one poem [each]". The name is a general name that can be applied to a number of works, but usually it refers to the 小倉百人一首, a work by the poet and scholar 藤原定家（ふじわらのていか） (1162-1241). Teika selected one poem each from one hundred poets, ranging from the 7th century (supposedly) up to his own time. The poems represent his own poetic tastes, and these should not necessarily be seen as the best 100 poems of all time. You can read more about it on Wikipedia or other Internet sites.
All of the poems are in the 和歌 or 短歌 format, which means a 31-beat/syllable poem divided into 5 lines (5-7-5-7-7 beats).
Why read/study it?
There are several good reasons to read it as a beginner in classical Japanese. 100 poems is short enough to read in its entirety, but still long enough to give you some depth. It's a good jumping off point for reading other Japanese poetry. Also, because of the popularity of the card game utagaruta, the work is still known today and many editions of it are published aimed at native Japanese people who have very little classical Japanese. There's even a current manga and anime series (ちはやふる) about karuta.
My idea is to post annotated versions of each poem, aimed at relative beginners to classical Japanese. I'm not going to assume much knowledge, although you should have some sort of reference that at least shows the classical conjugations (several of these can be found on the Internet, both in English and Japanese). For looking up classical words, many of them will not be in a J-E dictionary but a large J-J dictionary like the Koujien or Daijirin (goo.ne.jp, etc.) will suffice, although a dedicated classical dictionary is better.
The goal is not only to read the classical Japanese but also to learn about the poetic techniques, the authors themselves, and some traditional cultural elements.
Anyway, each post will have the following:
Text
I'm trying to practice 崩し字 as much as possible, so I'm first going to give a straight transcription from a manuscript that's in one of the books I have, then I'll do a 5-line cleaned up version with kanji, dakuten, etc. There will also be a romanization done by normal classical standards -- straight kana transcription following kunrei-shiki. As for actually reading the poems, nowadays people generally use an Edo-period pronunciation which is more or less the same as current pronunciation with a few differences (e.g. a + ふ is read as ou).
Notes
These are notes on the grammar and vocabulary, and sometimes the poetic techniques. They may seem a bit long since I tried to incorporate not just definitions but other information as well.
Translation
This is intended to be just a straight, basic translation, with no attempt to be poetic in English.
Author
Brief information on the author, although many of the authors have good articles on Wikipedia (if so I won't give a lot of information).
Source
All of the poems come from Imperial anthologies, so I will give the source of each poem. All poems in the anthologies have a 題 (circumstance of composition) which Teika omitted in the 百人一首, but I will give the 題 here since it's a good opportunity to read relatively simple classical Japanese prose.
Commentary
These are miscellaneous issues related to the poems and overall interpretation, as well as some classical commentary of the Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo periods.
I hope this doesn't sound too imposing or difficult -- I'll try to post the first poem in the next day or two and then try to do one a week after that.
What is the 百人一首?
The name means "One hundred people, one poem [each]". The name is a general name that can be applied to a number of works, but usually it refers to the 小倉百人一首, a work by the poet and scholar 藤原定家（ふじわらのていか） (1162-1241). Teika selected one poem each from one hundred poets, ranging from the 7th century (supposedly) up to his own time. The poems represent his own poetic tastes, and these should not necessarily be seen as the best 100 poems of all time. You can read more about it on Wikipedia or other Internet sites.
All of the poems are in the 和歌 or 短歌 format, which means a 31-beat/syllable poem divided into 5 lines (5-7-5-7-7 beats).
Why read/study it?
There are several good reasons to read it as a beginner in classical Japanese. 100 poems is short enough to read in its entirety, but still long enough to give you some depth. It's a good jumping off point for reading other Japanese poetry. Also, because of the popularity of the card game utagaruta, the work is still known today and many editions of it are published aimed at native Japanese people who have very little classical Japanese. There's even a current manga and anime series (ちはやふる) about karuta.
My idea is to post annotated versions of each poem, aimed at relative beginners to classical Japanese. I'm not going to assume much knowledge, although you should have some sort of reference that at least shows the classical conjugations (several of these can be found on the Internet, both in English and Japanese). For looking up classical words, many of them will not be in a J-E dictionary but a large J-J dictionary like the Koujien or Daijirin (goo.ne.jp, etc.) will suffice, although a dedicated classical dictionary is better.
The goal is not only to read the classical Japanese but also to learn about the poetic techniques, the authors themselves, and some traditional cultural elements.
Anyway, each post will have the following:
Text
I'm trying to practice 崩し字 as much as possible, so I'm first going to give a straight transcription from a manuscript that's in one of the books I have, then I'll do a 5-line cleaned up version with kanji, dakuten, etc. There will also be a romanization done by normal classical standards -- straight kana transcription following kunrei-shiki. As for actually reading the poems, nowadays people generally use an Edo-period pronunciation which is more or less the same as current pronunciation with a few differences (e.g. a + ふ is read as ou).
Notes
These are notes on the grammar and vocabulary, and sometimes the poetic techniques. They may seem a bit long since I tried to incorporate not just definitions but other information as well.
Translation
This is intended to be just a straight, basic translation, with no attempt to be poetic in English.
Author
Brief information on the author, although many of the authors have good articles on Wikipedia (if so I won't give a lot of information).
Source
All of the poems come from Imperial anthologies, so I will give the source of each poem. All poems in the anthologies have a 題 (circumstance of composition) which Teika omitted in the 百人一首, but I will give the 題 here since it's a good opportunity to read relatively simple classical Japanese prose.
Commentary
These are miscellaneous issues related to the poems and overall interpretation, as well as some classical commentary of the Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo periods.
I hope this doesn't sound too imposing or difficult -- I'll try to post the first poem in the next day or two and then try to do one a week after that.
Edited: 2011-12-25, 7:50 pm