In my paper, I want to talk about the image of transience and falseness that winter is associated with—to some degree, the “mujou” that the Winter poems in the Kokinshuu display. The poems I’ve chosen all have images of loss and longing associated with them. In some of the poems it’s more obvious, such as a pining lover in poem 317. In other poems it’s not quite so clear, such as poem 320, which actually bypasses the idea of “winter” altogether apart from a brief mention of snow, even though the poem itself is about the winter. These poems all successfully instill a feeling of loneliness in the reader or listener, whether by invoking a person’s feelings or the passing of a season.
316
Last night the moonlight
In the broad skies was so bright
That the waters which
Reflected it have frozen
To translucence first of all
-Anonymous
In this poem, the author uses the wintertime phenomenon of freezing water to draw a metaphorical parallel to “fantasy” worlds. The author is creating the image of a frozen lake or river, drawing upon the idea that frozen water tends to reflect the world above it to a degree—an image which is wavering and slightly distorted, “translucent,” and not necessarily reflective of reality. This wintertime phenomenon creates a wonderland which can only be seen in this particular season, and adds to the longing that the speaker is feeling. The speaker is wishing for something that he or she can almost see, but which is not quite within reach of reality.
317
As evening deepens
The sleeves of my robe grow cold—
In fair Yoshino
On lovely Mount Yoshino
Soft white snow must be falling
-Anonymous
This poem also brings across the feeling of “longing” by invoking two separate images. In the first two lines of the poem, the speaker is the center of the verse: the speaker’s sleeve is growing cold, symbolizing the loneliness she or he is feeling as the night grows colder and he or she is without company. The last three lines refer to a faraway mountain—possibly close to where the speaker’s lover resides—and that mountain, a long way away both physically and emotionally, is constantly in the speaker’s thoughts. He or she is relating to that far away place by connecting the cooling sleeves to the snow falling on the long-lost mountain.
318
May it continue
To fall forever lovely
White snow bending
the gracefully swaying stalks
of plume grass in my garden
-Anonymous
This poem, as lovely as it seems, is actually a fairly astute analogy to death. In the beginning of winter, as snow begins to fall, it first falls on the blades of grass that are remnants from the warmer months. As time passes and more snow piles up, those “swaying stalks of plume grass” will be slowly crushed to death. The beauty of the snow in this poem is gently contrasted with the image of the grass beginning to die, as it “slowly bends” the swaying stalks in the first stages of their demise.
319
The falling snow must
Be melting as it settles for
In the rugged range
Of mountains the sound of the
Seething rapids grows louder
-Anonymous
This poem seems to be a portend of some kind, especially for the coming of spring. As the weather warms up, the snow melts. As this happens in the mountains, the snowmelt becomes torrential, and rushes down the mountainside. This poem, therefore, is actually a poem referring to the death of winter. It relates to poem 318 in an interesting way because 318 is about the birth of winter, while 319 is about its death. The speaker in this poem is listening to the world around him or her and seeing winter come to its close.
320
Here in this river
Autumn leaves so swiftly flow—
Deep in the mountains
The snow drifts melt and add their
Icy waters to the stream
-Anonymous
This poem seems to encompass several seasons. In the beginning, autumn leaves are falling into a river, symbolizing—as one would expect—autumn, and the falling life of the year. The mountains, however, seem to take place in another season altogether, where instead of winter being born, it’s already dying. As in poem 319, the melting snow is brought on by warming weather, and as the snow melts, it runs down to become a part of the stream carrying away the leaves. This poem brings the seasons full-circle and connects early autumn with early spring, bypassing winter altogether.
These five poems were really interesting for me to read and analyze. They didn’t all quite seem to fit together at times, but by rereading them several times and looking for layers underneath the surface, I was able to piece them together into a sort of puzzle. It gave me a whole new image of this poetry; in class, we’ve often talked about reading the meaning behind the messages, and about the different layers of meaning that every concept in Japanese poetry can convey, but it didn’t quite hit me until I had to actually fit a group of poems together to go along with that concept. For such a short form of poetry, the ability for a poet to craft it in such a way that it can be read with so many different meanings in mind is really impressive.
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