Man'yōshū

The Man'yōshū (万 叶 集jap or万 叶 集, German Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves ) is the first large Japanese poem anthology. It is a collection of 4,496 poems, which contains among other things the Kokashū and Ruijū Karin (类 聚 歌林). The Man'yōshū increases in the pre-classical literature of Japan ( Nara period) a special position. It was around 759 and in contrast to all subsequent collections of the Heian period not to imperial command, but from a private collection, primarily by the poet Ōtomo no Yakamochi (大 伴 家 持) on the Chinese model, compiled. The more or less of it randomly applied circumference of 20 volumes served the following imperial poetry collections as a model.

The oldest poems can be dated back to the 4th century [ nb: the traditional yearly counting. 1], but most of them date from the period between 600 and 750

The compilation, is written in the Man'yōgaki, one from Man'yōgana (万 叶 仮 名) existing syllable form, used in the Chinese characters to represent the pronunciation. The recording of the poems made ​​solely in Kanji, the Chinese characters adopted by the Japanese. These characters were used for both ideographic and phonetic.

In Man'yōshū 561 authors are mentioned by name, including 70 women. In addition, a quarter of the poet to remain anonymous, so you can take another 200 writers. Among others, these Ōtomo Tabito ( 665-731 ), Yamanoe Okura ( 660-733 ) and Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿 本 人 麻 吕).

• 4.1 For the individual books

• 5.1 Kakinomoto Hitomaro
• 5.2 Yamabe Akahito
• 5.3 Yamanoe Okura
• 5.4 Ōtomo Yakamochi

• 6.1 Sakimori Uta
• 6.2 Azuma Uta

Title and Organization

The title has always been the translators prepares difficulties. In particular, the second of the three ideograms in the title you - yō shū can be understood in different ways. The characters you (万) is now commonly tens of thousands, but was also used to express a myriad comparable to the term indefinite large number. The character Shuu = collection is largely clear in its meaning. The ideogram is yō has often been understood to mean leaf and Koto no ha, literally word - sheet (言葉, kotoba ) been expanded within the meaning of word, speech, poem [ anm. 2]. This view leads to the most common translation of the term "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves". The second ideogram is also in the importance Mansei, Manyō many generations (叶 世) been considered. In this case, the title was about poems of many generations.

The editors of that work are not known, but the poet Ōtomo no Yakamochi likely to have contributed significantly to the development of the collection. Know the names of over 561 poets, but are about 25 % of the poets who have contributed to the diversity of the Man'yōshū, remain unknown. The earliest poems date back to the 4th century. However, most of the poems of the anthology are from the period between 600 and 750 The majority of the work to make 4173 short seals Mijika - uta, called Tanka from. In addition, the Man'yōshū contains 261 long poems Naga - uta or Choka, and 61 explicitly marked Sedōka, symmetrically constructed six-line poems.

During the later imperial poetry collections follow a strict subject classification principle (spring, summer, autumn, winter, goodbye, love, etc.), the arrangement of the poems in the Man'yōshū is still largely disordered. The poems can be divided into six groups, which are distributed over the entire body of text:

• Kusagusa no uta or Zoka (雑 歌) - mixed poems, such as congratulatory poems, travel songs and ballads.
• Somon (相 闻) - poems in mutual expression of a friendly feeling. An example of this is a poem that Nukada, the concubine of Emperor Tenji to the younger brother of the Emperor, Prince Ōama, wrote when he gave during a hunting trip to understand her that he woo her.
• Banka (挽歌) - elegies to which songs are about the death of members of the imperial family.
• Hiyuka (譬 喩 歌) - allegorical poems
• Kusagusa Shiki no uta or Eibutsuka (咏物 歌) - mixed poetry with particular reference to the nature and the four seasons
• Shiki somon - mutual expressions, taking into account the seasons [ anm. 3]

Formation

Already at the beginning of the 10th century could not quite tell when and by whom the Man'yōshū was compiled one. This was mainly due to the fact that the Tenno and with them, the Court in subsequent reigns again turned towards the Chinese poetry until the Engi - time. One can not say with certainty who were the compilers of this extensive work therefore. Sure can only be said that the collection was completed in the late Nara period [ anm. 4].

The remarks of the priest Keichu (契 冲) [ anm. 5] According to the Man'yōshū was in contrast to the collections of twenty-one epochs, which were compiled by imperial order, as a private collection of the poet Yakamochi of the Klan Ōtomo. He himself, involved in various political affairs, died under suspicious circumstances 785 The Klan Ōtomo then disappeared completely by the end of the 9th century. ( Or also called Nihongi ) The main sources of the Man'yōshū, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki which are mentioned even in the anthology. In addition, served as sources of individual poets works, memoirs, and diaries, as well as oral traditions seals. In some cases, the original source or even the personal opinion of the aggregator to the poem has been given. Another characteristic of the Man'yōshū is the repetition of the poems in slightly modified versions.

Only Emperor Murakami dealt again with the collection. In the two centuries elapsed until then had been largely forgotten how consistently the Chinese characters were read. Murakami therefore appointed a five -member commission, which began to write down the reading at Cana. This as Koten (old reading) known notation of 951 followed by Jiten (second reading ) of a six -member commission. The reading of then still remaining 152 poems was then in the 13th century by the monk Sengaku developed ( Shinten new reading).

One of the most important source books of the Man'yōshū was the Ruijū Karin (类 聚 歌林, forest is arranged verses ), which has been lost in later times. Construction was completed by Yamanoe Okura, one of the first Man'yōshū poets and einemr enthusiastic admirer of Chinese literature. There is not much known about the work, but it is thought that at least it served as a template for the first two volumes. Another source put the Kokashū (古 歌集, collection of old poems) dar. In addition, the known as Hitomaro, Kanamura, Mushimaro and Sakimaro collections mentioned in the Man'yōshū.

Normally, a seal or group of seals in the Man'yōshū the name of the author, a foreword and often precedes a note. In the preface and note most of the occasion, date and place, but also the source of the poem is given. Written is all this in Chinese. Even Chinese seals, although very rarely, occur in the books of the Man'yōshū. The poems themselves are written in Chinese characters, the kanji. It is noteworthy that the signs were mostly borrowed from the Chinese because of their phonetic value, which is referred to as Manyōgana. Some of the characters were also used semantically, with the corresponding Japanese reading ( ideographic use ). The kana, the syllabary Japan developed only from the Manyōgana. Several Kanji could have one and the same phonetic value. This was a great challenge for the translation of the Man'yōshū dar.

Lyrical forms

The versification of the Man'yōshū consists of several rows that contain alternating five and seven Moren usually.

Tanka

The most common and still preserved in the form of the anthology is the Tanka. This poem has five lines with 31 Moren: 5/7/5/7/7.

Choka

In addition, can be found in the so-called long Man'yōshū poetry or Choka. A Choka also consists of 5 or 7 Moren per line and is completed with a siebenmorigen line: 5/7/5/7/5 ... 7/7. The long poems are formed on the Chinese model. You often follow short poems, called Kaeshi - uta or Hanka (反 歌, repetition poem ). Formally, it involves Tanka, which represent a summary or an addendum in prägnenater form.

The longest Choka in the anthology does not exceed 150 lines, however. Altogether there are 262 long poems in the Man'yōshū, some of them from the pen of Kakinomoto Hitomaro, one of the most important poets. The Choka himself lost in the 8th century in importance, while the importance of the Tanka increased.

Sedōka

In addition to these two forms are found also the " Kehrverslied " ( Sedōka ). It comes in the Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves against 61 times. It involves the combination of two half- poems, the Kata - uta (片 歌), which is characterized by the two fold repetition of the triplet 5/7/7, ie: 5/7/7/5/7/7. The Sedōka was with time ungebräuchlicher and finally sank into oblivion.

Bussokusekika

Last is still a special form, the Bussokusekika (仏 足 石 歌, literally Buddhafußspurgedichte ) existent with only one copy in the Man'yōshū. It is reminiscent of a stone monument that has the shape of the footprint of the Buddha and the 752 was created in Yakushi Temple near Nara. Engraved in it are 21 songs that have been preserved up to the present day. Characteristic of this form are six lines with 38 syllables: 5/7/5/7/7/7.

Rhetorical means

Neither intonation, pitch, syllable lengths rhyme nor be used for the action of the poem. This is attributed to the peculiarity of the Japanese language in which every syllable ends in a vowel.

As rhetorical devices alliteration were used on the one and the other, the parallelism, which was used in Choka. In addition, so-called Kake were used kotoba (挂 词), word games with homonyms, in which a reading can take different meanings depending on the character. Another typical Japanese style agents are the Makura kotoba (枕 词), "pillow words " since they semantically lean against the reference word. In their function, they are similar to the epithets ornantia ( ornamental epithets ). These are individual words or phrases, generally with five syllables, which are connected in poems with other fixed- spelled words or phrases. Due to the semantic overlay, the poet could create associations and sound, which gives the poem ups and downs. Can matsu The Japanese word for example, to wait, but also pine mean, depending on whether one assumes the character (待つ) or (松). Makura kotoba came before in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, however, were only established by Kakinomoto Hitomaro in the Man'yōshū.

The longer Joshi (序 词), introduction words are constructed the pillow word similar, but more than five Moren and were mostly used as a form of the prologue.

Of these three agents, the Kake kotoba Although formally the simplest, in Japanese poetry at the same time very important and translator for a major challenge.

Example: Book II, poem 1 of Iwa no hime:

君 之 行 气 长 成 奴 山 多 都 祢 迎 加 将 行 可 将 待

君 が 行き 日 長く なり ぬ 山 尋ね 迎 へ か行 かむ 待ち に か 待 たむ

Kimi ga yuki kenagaku narinu yama tazune Mukae ka Yukamu machi ni ka matamu

Your going away has already become long Am I looking at the mountains [ Him ] go to meet Or should I wait for him waiting for?

Yamatazu is no Makura kotoba to Mukae here. The Versschema is: 5-7-5-7-7.

Content

In his quality the Man'yōshū not subject to one of the well-known Chinese collections and in quantity it can be compared with the Greek Anthology. In contrast to another major collection of poems, the Kokin Wakashū, both seals of the court and the people are included in the country in the Man'yōshū. The range is even up to Sakimori, the " seals the border guards " and the seals of the eastern provinces, Azuma Uta, in their coarse dialect. In addition to the magnificent play of urban life coexist vivid descriptions of rural life. This anthology reflects Japanese life at the time of their creation and clarifies contact with Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism and Confucianism.

Among the early works, especially the creations of the imperial family are counted, which have a predilection for the folk song Broken or ceremonials. A good example of this is the emperor Yūryaku ( 456-479 ) attributed poem Yamato no kuni ( the country Yamato ), which opened the Man'yōshū.

To the individual books

As already mentioned, the Man'yōshū of 20 volumes. It is believed that the first two books in the collection have been compiled on the command of the Emperor. Book I contains works of the period between the reign of the Emperor Yūryaku ( 456-479 ) and the start of the Nara period. Book II, however, covers a longer period from: It contains songs that the Emperor Nintoku ( 313-399 ) are attributed to and the ones that have been dated to 715. Both books are in comparison to the other volumes rather less extensive, the poems appear in chronological order and are " Early palace style " written in the so-called. Book III is the period between the reign of the Empress Suiko ( 592-628 ) and the year 744 Contrary to its predecessors, the book contains more of the seals of the lands. One can say in general that the poets of the Ōtomo clans are extremely present in the first three books of the Man'yōshū. In Book IV are the only Sōmonka from the Nara period. The key concept of Book IV is koi. Probably the best translation of the term " desire ", such that is never returned. As a result, creates frustration that comes to advantage.

Book V covers the years 728-733 and contains some important Choka. In view of the time period covered and the poet of Book VI is the books IV and VIII very similar. It includes 27 Choka and some travel and banquet seals. The Book VII as well as the X, XI and XII books, equipped with anonymous seals, the period between the reign of the Empress Jitō ( 686-696 ) and Empress Gensho ( 715-724 ) covers. It contains several songs of Hitomaro Collection and is another important part, 23 Sedōka, a. The Books XI and XII can the Fujiwara and the early Nara period are assigned. The seals of these books rather wear the folk poetic character. Book IX reveals seals of time between the reign of the Emperor Jomei ( 629-641 ) and, apart from a Tanka of the Emperor Yūryaku, the songs were 744 Based in large part from the Hitomaro and Mushimaro collections. Book XIII has a unique repertoire of 67 Choka, the majority of which is dated to the time of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. However, some examples come clearly from the later periods. The collection of the seals of the eastern provinces can be found in the Book XIV Neither the authors nor the date of the compilation is known, but shows a clear difference to the province of poetry, in style and language. Book XV includes, among other things, a series of marine seals, written by members of the embassy to Korea by 736 and some love poems, dated 740, which were replaced by Nakatomi Yakamori and his lover Sanu Chigami. The treated of in the Book XVI seals describe the period between the reign of Emperor Mommu ( 697-706 ) and the Tempyo era ( 729-749 ).

Generally, the poet Ōtomo no Yakamochi is considered as the compiler of the first 16 books of the Man'yōshū. It is also proven that exists between the books I to XVI and the subsequent four a time gap.

Books XVII through XX are considered personally collected works of Ōtomo no Yakamochi. Each of the four books a thing of the Nara period, Book XVII covers the years 730-740, Book XVIII 748-750 and Book XIX 750-753. Overall, these three volumes contain 47 Choka, the contents of the book XIX is determined to two-thirds by Yakamochis works, here is the bulk of his masterpieces. Book XX covers the years 753 to 759 Here are the Sakamori written down, the songs of the border soldiers who guarded the coast of Kyūshū. Name, Rank, Province and status of each individual soldier are recorded together with the associated seal. The year 759, the last date occurring in the Man'yōshū anthology to which the final poem, written by Yakamochi appended.

Outstanding poets

Kakinomoto Hitomaro

From the half of the 7th century a professional level of Poets was formed out of the court where Kakinomoto Hitomaro has played a not insignificant role (around 662 to 710 ). Of his life nothing is known, but he had a substantial proportion of 450 poems, of which 20 Choka, in the Man'yōshū. The he created poems can be divided into two categories: those which he has made to order, so to speak, in his capacity as court poet and the one that he created from his personal feelings out. Former include elegies on the death of members of the imperial family. Especially in the Choka he showed all of his artistic skill. By using joshi and makura kotoba, accompanied by a refrain -like repetitions he knew the sound of the poem to make. The long poem found with Hitomaro addition to its climax and its end. Although the court poet Yamabe Akahito tried to continue the tradition of Choka, but he did not succeed, heranzureichen to the feat of Hitomaro. For the sinking of the Choka there were several reasons. The Choka knew only a few stylistic means, such as the design with 5 and 7 syllables. As already mentioned, rhymes or accents played no role, contrary to the European poem. Furthermore, it was in the long poems to praise the Emperor, with only a few exceptions. So the seals were not designed manifold. Last embodied the seals Hitomaros not ideal, but expressed only the absolutely loyal attitude towards the " Great Sovereign " from.

The second group of his poems, the personal feelings, presents him as an excellent poet, particularly in relation to the elegies he wrote on the death of his wife.

Yamabe Akahito

One of the central themes of the Man'yōshū included love and pain of death. The thus -dealing poems drew their metaphors from the immediate near- natural environment, causing the feeling of love was expressed by flowers, birds, moon and wind, the pain, however, made ​​use of metaphors such as mountains, rivers, grass and trees. Undoubtedly, there was the change of seasons a special affinity. However, the concept of nature was not treated in its full breadth. So it happened that, for example, the moon served as the motive many poems, the sun and the stars, however, were rather rare in the seals before. In addition, the coastal sea was preferred to the vastness of the lake. The poet Yamabe Akahito, known for its scenery seals, wrote his poems, as opposed to Hitomaro, even if no particular need existed to do so. Themes of his poems were not huge mountains, but the Kaguyama, a hill of 148 meters above sea level, not the sea but the small bays with their fishing boats.

Because Akahito only created nature poems and continued to develop in no way in this direction, he was necessarily a specialist nature poetry. He discovered that poetry without intuition and originality was possible. Thus he became the first professional poet of Japanese poetry, which describes its historical significance.

Yamanoe Okura

Another poet played an important role in the Man'yōshū: Yamanoe Okura. Nothing is known about its origin, but reported Nihonshoki that a " Yamanoe Okura without court rank " a member of the embassy to China in 701 was. After three years, he returned to Japan and was raised to the peerage, 714. 721 he became a teacher of the Crown Prince. 726 he was sent as governor of Chikuzen after Kyūshū. Several years later, he fell ill and wrote a 733 " text, itself the consolation given the long suffering ", in which he described the symptoms of his disease.

During the stay in China Okura perfected his ability to write Chinese texts, which reveal a strong Taoist and Buddhist influence. So he quotes in the preface to one of his poems " rebuke of a lost spirit" ( V/800 ) Sanko and Gokyo, essential Confucian concepts. Another poem that he wrote, an elegy on the death of his wife ( V/794 ) shows massive Buddhist influences.

Okuras love for family and children was a major theme of his poems. His above -mentioned poem "Song leaving a banquet " was decisive, because no one but him has ever written such verses again. Since the Edo period, it was even for a man as shameful, from a banquet to remove for family reasons. A second theme of his poems put the burden of age dar. Accompanying be to " poem about the difficulty in this world to life.", In which he complains of the immediately coming age

The third major topic Okuras include seals on misery, poverty and heartlessness of the tax collector. The following poem, a Gegenvers to Choka dialogue on poverty ( V/892 ), makes his thoughts clear:

This topic has been moved by any of his contemporaries or successors ever again.

Ōtomo Yakamochi

The son of Ōtomo Tabito, Ōtomo Yakamochi (718? -785 ) Spent his youth in Kyushu. After his father died, he became the head of the house Ōtomo. His political career was not without success: He served as governor of various provinces, but also stopped frequently at the court in Nara on. 756 he was involved in an unsuccessful plot against the influential Fujiwara at the court, which lowered the star of his political career.

Ōtomo Yakamochi is one of the main co- plates of the Man'yōshū, which contains around 500 of his poems, the last 759 years from the Its merit lies not in the originality nor in the language or sensory force of his poems, it is rather that it Yakamochi managed to refine the expression of natural feeling and thus to the world of Kokinshu ( at 905) if not be reconciled even to that of Shin- Kokinshu ( 1205 ).

The court and folk poetry

The poetry of the aristocracy of the 7th century looked on the one hand, the long poem as a representative form of poetry and used it mainly for special occasions and collective. On the other hand, the lyric poem in the tanka, the short poem, which was to the valve of the personal feeling developed. The recurring motif of the Tanka was the love between man and woman, filled with metaphors from the natural environment. Nevertheless, the takeover of the mainland culture had already begun, the Chinese thought could not penetrate into the deep strata of thought. Even in the heyday of Buddhist art in the Tempyo era ( 729-749 ), the Buddhist thought manifested not in the lyric of the nobility. " The poet of the 8th century marked a in isolation from human concerns regarded Nature ( Yamabe Akahito ), felt the mental turmoil of love by ( Ōtomo Sakanoe ), or sang about the nuances of a highly refined world of sensation ( Ōtomo Yakamochi ) ". As a central theme of poetry remained the love and the poet of the court sat the intense experience of the moment as the highest bid.

Sakimori Uta

Representative of folk poetry were the one Sakimori Uta (防 人 歌), songs of border guards and other Azuma Uta (东 歌), Songs of the eastern provinces. The contents of the Sakimori Uta present with 80 songs in the Man'yōshū, teamed up of three main themes. About a third of the songs complains about the separation of the wife or lover, another third goes to the parents or the mother ( in one case the father) at home and only the remainder is concerned with the actual service of the soldiers. However, the latter are by no means praises to the military service, often the soldiers complain hateful about their activities:

Among the border guards, there was a hierarchy: For every 10 soldiers came a subgroup leader. In contrast to the simple soldiers partially very different kind of songs were handed down by the sub-group leaders:

Azuma Uta

The emotional feelings of the people in the country were from the court not fundamentally different from lying. A common feature for example, was the common Japanese worldview. Busy is the Azuma Uta, over 230 short poems anonymous poet of the provinces. It is believed that these originated in the 8th century. As good as any characteristics of Buddhism are in the Azuma Uta included, which one can assume that here the urjapanische culture as it was obtained at the time reflects.

As in the seal of the court, the love between man and woman is the central motif here. 196 of the more than 230 poems are assigned by the compilers of the group of Sōmonka, but are among the remaining few that directly appeal to more or less the theme of love. Contrary to the poet of the court, there is little natural seal, detached from feeling love. Only two poems mention death. The description of the love between man and woman has before only a few verbs that occur according often. These can be divided into two groups: those that relate to the direct physical contact, and those that handle the mental side of love. The first part of the example nu, sleep within the meaning of intercourse. The other group includes verbs such as Kofu, love, or mofu, crave. Azuma Uta reflects the popular belief, which tries to use oracle, the interpretation of words passer and the burning of the shoulder blade bone of a deer to determine the immediate near future to take on even influence them.

Swell

• Graeme Wilson ( translator's ): From The Morning Of The World. Publisher Harvill, London 1991
• Ian Hideo Levy ( translator's ): The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of the Man'yōshū, Japan 's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1987 ( first edition 1981)
• Donald Keene: Seeds In The Heart. Columbia University Press, New York 1999
• Theodore De Bary: Manyoshu. Columbia University Press, New York 1969
• Shuichi Katō: Japanese literary history. Scherz Verlag, Bern [ et al ] 1990
• Horst Hammitzsch (ed.): Japan Manual. Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1990