(no subject)
The unfortunate thing about teaching is that by the time students really start to get it, the class is over - I was so pleased this past week when one of my sections really dove into selections from the Man'yōshū (万葉集 - 'Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves'), which is the oldest collection of Japanese poetry (late Nara or early Heian). I think poetry is such a lovely thing to study, mostly because it usually amazes people who have never read such old things how well it translates to the present day (you know, reminding them that people are people and all that). It's nice to watch students realize that something written over a thousand years ago resonates with their lives somehow. I think starting off with Latin warped my brain, so I'm used to that - but most people don't read bits of lives that ended two thousand years ago, so.
A few of their favorites:
"Dialogue poems"
If the thunder rolls for a while
And the sky is clouded, brining rain,
Then you will stay beside me.
Even when no thunder sounds
And no rain falls, if you but ask me,
Then I will stay beside you. (From the Hitomaro Collection)
(Obviously, I liked that one lots too!)
I will think of you, love,
On evenings when the grey mist
Rises above the rushes,
And chill sounds the voice
Of the wild ducks crying. (Poem of a Frontier Guard)
"Referring to snow"
Having met you as in a dream,
I feel I would dissolve, body and soul,
Like the snow that falls,
Darkening the heavens. (Anon)
I thought there could be
No more love left anywhere.
Whence then is come this love,
That has caught me now
And holds me in its grasp? (Princess Hirokawa)
There were also some longer poems they liked, though everyone commented on how sad they all seemed. I noted that East Asian poetry is rife with Depressing Themes. It's also replete with Getting Smashed and Writing Poetry themes (I told them the supposed story about Li Bai drowning in a lake, trying to hug the moon), which they were very interested in. We had three Korean poems, two of the three on drinking (hmmm ...). The shorter one (which is fun fun fun!):
Harmonizing With Secretary Chŏng on the Ninth Day
Yellow flowers and scarlet leaves - again this year
Old zest shakes us as we sit at an elegant feast.
Drinking done, we madly sing and lean on the dawn moon;
This feeling worth a decade rises above the world.
Ch'oe Yu-chŏng (1095-1174)
This feeling worth a decade ...
Makes me smile.
A few of their favorites:
"Dialogue poems"
If the thunder rolls for a while
And the sky is clouded, brining rain,
Then you will stay beside me.
Even when no thunder sounds
And no rain falls, if you but ask me,
Then I will stay beside you. (From the Hitomaro Collection)
(Obviously, I liked that one lots too!)
I will think of you, love,
On evenings when the grey mist
Rises above the rushes,
And chill sounds the voice
Of the wild ducks crying. (Poem of a Frontier Guard)
"Referring to snow"
Having met you as in a dream,
I feel I would dissolve, body and soul,
Like the snow that falls,
Darkening the heavens. (Anon)
I thought there could be
No more love left anywhere.
Whence then is come this love,
That has caught me now
And holds me in its grasp? (Princess Hirokawa)
There were also some longer poems they liked, though everyone commented on how sad they all seemed. I noted that East Asian poetry is rife with Depressing Themes. It's also replete with Getting Smashed and Writing Poetry themes (I told them the supposed story about Li Bai drowning in a lake, trying to hug the moon), which they were very interested in. We had three Korean poems, two of the three on drinking (hmmm ...). The shorter one (which is fun fun fun!):
Harmonizing With Secretary Chŏng on the Ninth Day
Yellow flowers and scarlet leaves - again this year
Old zest shakes us as we sit at an elegant feast.
Drinking done, we madly sing and lean on the dawn moon;
This feeling worth a decade rises above the world.
Ch'oe Yu-chŏng (1095-1174)
This feeling worth a decade ...
Makes me smile.