The maples are not only beautiful but are also often associated with the gods. The word chihayafuru is a pillow word used in tandem with the word ‘god’ or ‘gods.’ It is thought to mean ‘awe-inspiring’ or ‘raging.’ I have translated it as ‘the raging gods.’ The poem depicts the maple leaves tie-dying the water in autumnal colors and states that nothing as beautiful has been seen since the age of the raging gods of ancient times. This poem begins with the word chihayafuru** which gave the title to a famous manga of the same name. In the One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, one of the most famous poems is poem 17. “From ancient times the Japanese have loved the reds and yellows of the autumn maples. Peter MacMillan, who wrote the English translation featured here, explains his interpretation of the appeal of this poem as follows: The source of this poem is the Kokin wakashu. The premise of the poem is that what the poet at first took to be a colorful weir built across the mountain brook was actually a collection of richly colored autumn leaves gathered across the river by the autumn wind. Shigarami (weir) is a kind of fence-shaped barrier that is installed across a river by driving in stakes between the banks and then joining them horizontally using the tied-together branches of trees or bamboo.
Yamagawa (mountain river) is a type of fast-flowing river or brook found in the valleys between mountains. by Peter MacMillan, One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each Harumichi no Tsuraki, Hyakunin Isshu 32 Here, we introduce two waka poems that describe the colors of autumn leaves and the light of the moon, taken from Hyakunin Isshu (see the next page). In particular, many waka are composed on the subtle changes in the colors of the leaves and the moon, both of which are symbols of autumn. The poems handle topics such as the emotions experienced in life and love, employing various motifs from the natural world-what the Japanese call kacho-fugetsu (literally, “flowers, birds, wind, moon”)-to express their emotions. In the introduction to the Kokin wakashu (“Collection of Ancient and Modern Poetry”), which was compiled at the beginning of the tenth century, it says that “the seeds in people’s minds grow into tens of thousands of leafy words, and that is the essence of waka.”* The distinctive character of waka is that they express the beauty of nature as it changes with the seasons, combined with the feelings of the poets. The oldest anthology of waka poems-the Manyoshu (“Collection of Myriad Leaves”)-is said to have been compiled from around the second half of the seventh century, and contains a wide assortment of waka, ranging from poems composed by emperors to those composed by common people. Waka is a form of Japanese classical poetry in which the poems generally consist of 31 syllables, divided into five parts with five, seven, five, seven and seven (5-7-5-7-7) syllables in each. The colors of the autumn leaves and the moon are typical subjects in the classical poetry of Japan known as “ waka.” Colors of autumn leaves: Image from the scene of Harumichi no Tsuraki’s waka
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