Poem Meaning and Background
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| Photo by John Rodenn Castillo on Unsplash |
たきのおとは・たえてひさしく・なりぬれど
taki no oto wa・taete hisashiku・narinuredo
なこそながれて・なほきこえけれ
na koso nagarete・nao kikoe kere
〜大納言公任 (Dainagon Kintō)
Translation
Though the waterfall
Ceased its flowing long ago,
And its sound is stilled,
Yet, in name it ever flows,
And in fame may yet be heard.
Meaning
The author of this poem wrote this upon visiting the old imperial villa of the former Emperor Saga. The villa is Daikaku-ji in Kyoto, and was built almost 200 years before this poem was written. In the past, the garden there contained a famous man-made waterfall, however, by the author's time, the waterfall had long since dried up. The poem is meant to capture the beauty of the waterfall as the author imagined it, and attempts to immortalize it so that its name and splendor would continue to live on. It reminds me of the famous end of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: "So long as men can live or eyes can see/ So long lives this and this gives life to thee". While Shakespeare's sonnet was published in 1609, this tanka was written sometime around the year 1000 or before, so this poem, and with it this waterfall's fame, has endured for nearly a thousand years.
The opening 滝の音は絶えて(taki no oto wa taete）means that the sound of the waterfall has died out. 久し（hisashi) means a long time, so 久しくなりぬれど (hisashiku narinuredo) means "although a long time has passed". The word 流れ(nagare) has multiple meanings, and it can refer to flowing water, or also to something that can be heard. Therefore, its name "flows", or is carried on through stories of its grandeur. In the first half of the poem, the sound た(ta) is repeated, almost as if the waterfall is still flowing, and making sound. But in the latter half, the sound な(na) is repeated, almost more like a murmur, or an echo of the waterfall's name being passed along. Though the author says that the waterfall's fame will live on, he doesn't mention the waterfall's actual name. Due to the popularity of this poem, the waterfall came to be known as 名古曽の滝（nakoso no taki), with people deriving the name from the second half of the poem.
Author
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Fujiwara no Kintō by Kikuchi Yōsai |
Fujiwara no Kintō (966 ~ 1041) was a skilled in writing both Japanese and Chinese poetry, and also a skilled musician. He was known as 三船の才 along with Minamoto no Tsunenobu, author of [71] Yuu. His son, Fujiwara no Sadayori, wrote poem [64] Asaborakeu.
Fujiwara no Kintō also established the group of "36 Immortals of Poetry" (Sanjūrokkasen), which were based off of an earlier selection of "6 Immortals of Poetry" (Rokkasen). The Rokkasen were chosen by Ki no Tsurayuki, who also authored [35] Hitowa. Fujiwara no Teika, who compiled the Hyakunin Isshu and authored poem [97] Konu, recommended that aspiring poets study Kintō's anthology of poems by the Sanjūrokkasen.
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