kitsu Wrote:Finally an update, but no comments?

I liked this one, it seemed very readable (and I'm getting used to 出でX too). Again the context really changes and fills out the meaning of the poem.

Thanks again for posting these. Feel free to post more book photos or bookstore links!

I dunno if I'm the only one in this boat, but my Japanese isn't good enough to comment/add anything. I do like reading them, though - they're very cool/intriguing. So thanks, ydtt.

kitsu Wrote:Finally an update, but no comments?

That's what kills my motivation to do more.

Well, it's great to me because even though I already own a Classical Japanese textbook, have resources with all Modern Japanese translations of the works, and what not, I have no access to info about 崩し字. I haven't found much on 変体仮名. But, I do have a considerable chart. However, even this resource doesn't help much when you take into account as you've said before handwriting variation.

I don't, also have all the historical background information available to me like what you put out. As a student of Classical Japanese, I find your posts to be gold minds.

I like reading these, too. It's encouraging me to finish up my other grammar studies so I can move on to classical Japanese.

Yes, and it's not as if all of it doesn't help with Modern Japanese too. It provides a lot of the historical reason and evolution for what the language looks like today, especially when you consider Japanese in the broader spectrum in considering dialects.\

Quite honestly I think a lot of people are reading them and are just too consumed in writing down and studying everything and in awe that they fail to think of responding to make their readership known.

Reading yudantaiteki's posts is instructive, I'd certainly like more of them.
I cannot posts any comments, because I know nothing about the subject.
I do like listening to the poems, though. It keeps me alive.
http://www.mediafire.com/?xgfltqdz51kset7

I think everybody should do something pro publico bono, something they're good at. yudantaiteki has something unique to offer, so...

@Yudantaiteki: I found these too hard when you first started posting, and so wasn't following the thread, but I've just read the most recent and then re-read the first one and I really enjoyed both, so thank you for posting them. I definitely wouldn't have been able to read them on my own.

@Buonaparte: Thanks for posting the audio.

I stumbled upon a website that has all 百人一首。 There are all in pdf format. I don't know how accurate they are so those who own the book can compare.

http://kids.nifty.com/card/carta/001_100nin/index.htm

yudantaiteki Wrote:Poem 11

That was a marvel to read. Now, we can listen to buonaparte's audio, and also decipher the text. Your comments are an invaluable addition in reading it --- my enjoyment of the poems is much better if the grammar and prose is explained, so thank you!
If you didn't look it up yet, dear reader, wikipedia has some funny legends about 小野篁.

[Zgarbas]

I have a random question regarding a few poems, that break the tanka format slightly.

There are lines like たたずもあらなん (#73) with 8 syllables or めぐりあひて （＃５７） with 6 syllables。Is this because あい and なん can be considered a single mora for some reason?

(this thread deserves infinite necros anyway)

Those are known as 字余り; I don't think there's any set rules although it does seem that in some cases it may have been more acceptable with something like なん. It's a fairly common thing to see, though.

[Zgarbas]

Oh, thank you . I'm still pretty new to this, so I haven't encountered it much.

I'm a bit late for the party: I've been postponing familiarizing myself with Classical Japanese and therefore avoiding all content concerning it, including this thread. Last week I finally started reading this thread and bought a book on Classical Japanese by the Russian linguist N.A. Syromyatnikov (his book on Old Japanese was also on sale, but I decided to get that one a bit later).

On the very first page of the book proper (i.e. excluding the intros), in the segment about the vowel system, the author discusses the avoidance of hiatus in Old Japanese by merging vowels at the borders of words and/or morphemes, and how it at least partially carried over into Classical Japanese. He actually cites 字余り as an example of this phenomenon: while the written representations of the poems keep the morphemes on those borders intact, to make the text more comprehensible, the original readings would omit one of the clashing vowels. Therefore, even though the mora count of the text looks excessive (thus also making it excessive in modern readings), the original readings of the poems still fit the standard 5-7-5-7-7 rhythm. The example he gives is the line 水の面に, transcribed "midu-no omo-ni", but originally pronounced "midu-nomo-ni". He cites L.M. Yermakova's research of "Yamato-monogatari" as the source for this, while also adding his own conjecture that the omissions might not have happened any more if the speaker made even the slightest pause between the two words (thus explaining lines like はつつる糸（いと）は), and that it's likely that they were no longer obligatory in spoken Middle Japanese and were preserved in poetry as a tradition.

A cursory glance at the poems in this thread reveals that the instances of 字余り do seem to be limited to lines containing orthographical hiatus. In response to Zgarbas' question, it might be that it's not the あい（あひ） and なん（なむ） that are considered a single mora, but the りあ and もあ. However, considering that the first edition of this book was published in the USSR in 1983 (the second and current one only came out in 2002, long after Syromyatnikov's death), I wonder if this theory has any currency in modern Japanese studies anywhere outside Russia. I have already noticed other bits and pieces of dated and/or non-mainstream info in other parts of the book. For instance, while the author doesn't go into detail about the theories of the origins and classification of Japanese, from time to time he somewhat matter-of-factly drops references to proposed Altaic cognates and grammatical parallels in Austronesian languages, implying that he accepted both the Altaic theory and the Austronesian creole theory, the former of which is highly disputed and the latter IIRC no longer considered credible by most scholars.

So, yudantaiteki, I guess what I would like to ask is whether you have heard anything about this explanation for 字余り, or about any evidence that could disprove it (like a poem from the early Classical period where 字余り occurs in a line without any hints of hiatus).

I have heard that as a possible explanation. I guess we don't have enough historical sound evidence or any sort of contemporary writing on ji-amari that would definitively answer the question.

Yeah, that's what I assumed. Thanks for the reply, as well as for starting this thread. I understand if you don't feel like continuing it, but I for one would appreciate it greatly if you did.

Wow, how did I not see this before? This is an amazing intro to classical Japanese! I'll have to go through it slowly and take notes later...

Poem 12

Text

天つ風 ama-tu-kaze
雲の通ひ路 kumo no kayohi-di
吹き閉ぢよ huki-todiyo
をとめの姿 wotome no sugata
しばしとどめむ sibasi todome-mu

Notes

天つ風: The つ here is like modern の; you still see this in place names. The heavenly wind is being addressed here, and given the command/request of the second and third lines.

雲の通ひ路: This is a "road in the clouds" that heavenly beings pass to get from heaven to earth (this is the object of the verb in line 3).

吹き閉ぢよ: The よ here is not the particle, but the 命令形 conjugation of the 下二段 verb と.づ. The wind is being commanded to blow the clouds to shut the road to the heavens.

をとめ: This can have the same meaning as in modern Japanese (a young girl, or a virgin). Here it specifically indicates the Gosechi dancers, and probably also heavenly maidens (see below).

とどめむ: This is the 未然形 of the 下二段 verb とどむ, with the auxiliary む that shows volition or intent.

Translation: Oh heavenly wind, blow the cloud roads shut! I would keep the maidens here for a time.

Author: 僧正遍照（そうじょうへんじょう）, 816-890. One of the six poetic immortals, Henjo is a major figure of the Kokinshu period.

Source: 古今集 872, in the first 雑歌 (miscellaneous poems) volume. The prose preface is 五節の舞姫を見てよめる ("Written after watching the Gosechi Dancers").

Commentary: The technique here is usually called 見立て, a feigned confusion between something you are looking at and another phenomenon. It was borrowed from Chinese poetry and is a major poetic technique in the Kokinshu. The Gosechi Dancers are a group of women that dance publicly for the Emperor. They were chosen from unmarried daughters of relatively low-ranking court nobles. The practice is highly unusual in that most aristocratic women of the time were hidden away so that even their husbands rarely saw them in light. The practice was said to have come from heavenly maidens dancing for Emperor Temmu, which might have inspired the poem here.

Early Japanese poetry has such an elegant simplicity to it... it's surprising how well the language held up to this very day, despite the many oddities of classical Japanese.

Thank you for this.

yudantaiteki Wrote: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.

Yudantaiteki

I'm glad I found this thread. And the use of 変体仮名 and 草書 takes me back. We were lucky to have a professor who could teach this apparently useless subject. However, since Mt. Fuji is expected to blow its top in the next geologic second, firsthand accounts of the previous eruption require knowledge of this kind of handwriting that is still more legible than mine in any language. So, maybe not so useless after all, though trying to convince bean-counters at public universities which classes not to cut required the strong professors we had.

[Zgarbas]

When I saw the thread name in the recent topics list my heart skipped a beat <3

Did I ever mention that this was the first place I encountered 短歌、way before I got into it? I probably would never have gotten into poetry if it weren't for this thread. I can't bring much in the way of useful commentary, but just thought I'd express my gratitude for this .

Poem 13

Text

筑波嶺の tukubane no
峰より落つる mine yori oturu
男女川 mina no gaha
恋ぞつもりて kohi zo tumori-te
淵となりぬる futi to nari-nuru

Notes

筑波嶺: This is Mount Tsukuba.

より: In classical Japanese this often has the meaning of modern から ("from").

落つる: This is おつ, the classical form of 落ちる, in the 連体形 because it's modifying 男女川.

男女川: A river; evidently called this because there were (or are?) two peaks 男体山 and 女体山 that the river flowed between. Up to this point is a 序詞 (see poem 3), relying on the next word こひ, which is 恋 in the poem but suggests 小泥（こひぢ）, a word that was often used as a pun with 恋路 in poetry. The vocabulary of the rest of the poem is connected with rivers, such as つもりて and 淵, working both for a deep pool in a river (which seems to stop the river's flow) and the depths of love shutting up one's heart.

ぞ...ぬる: See poem 5 about 係り結び. The ぞ is just for emphasis.

なりぬる: The ぬる here is the completion auxiliary ぬ, in 連体形 form because of the ぞ above. The original poem in the 後撰和歌集 and old manuscripts of the 百人一首 have なりける instead.

Translation
Minano River, which flows from Tsukuba Peak -- love wells up in my heart and forms a deep pool.

Author: 陽成院, Emperor Yozei (868-949). 院 here means a retired Emperor. He is the 57th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order.

Source: 後撰和歌集, from the third volume of love poems, poem 776. The prose preface is 釣殿の皇子につかはしける. つかはす is an honorific version of 遣う (to send/dispatch). 釣殿の皇子 is Princess Suishi, a daughter of Emperor Koko, who would later be Yozei's Empress.

I don't really have any additional commentary about this one.

Thanks for a new one, yudantaiteki!

So 男女川 is "mina no gaha"? I don't think I've ever seen 連濁 following a possessive の. Although, since it's a proper name and the の isn't even shown in writing, I guess it all counts as a single word, so 連濁 could apply.

Also, has 淵/futi shifted its meaning over time? Granted, I don't encounter this word very often, but I'm pretty sure that I've only ever seen it used in the meaning of "abyss" or "the deep".

I think this might be a case of がわ becoming lexicalized because it shows up in a lot of river names (天の川 for the milky way, for instance).

Sorry, my definition for 淵 was not very good. It's a deep pool in a river; a place where the river seems to stop flowing for a while.

Ah, one of those little subtleties that no dictionary bothers to explain in English. The Green Goddess has

1 〔川などの深くよどんだ所〕 a (deep) pool; deep water;〔深淵〕 a trench; 《口》 a drop-off; 《詩》 an ¬abyss [abysm].

Which I'm sure works great if your first instinct isn't to go for the English.

Thanks for the latest poem Yudantaiteki. I've no current plans to learn ye olde Japanese but I'm enjoying this thread simply for the poems it makes comprehensible and not as a means towards something else.