more daring to speak of their flame. Here is a sample tanka by the Japanese lady poet who has the reputation of being the most ardent lover, Ono no Komachi. Her life inspired both ancient and modern Noh plays.
| Yumeji niwa | On. the path of dreams |
| Asm mo yasumezu | My feet never cease running to you |
| Kayoe domo | But the vague dreams are not |
| Utsutsu ni hitome | Worth a glimpse |
| Mishi koto wa arazu | Of the real you. |
Another tanka:
| Hito ni awan | About the one I want to see |
| Tsuki no naki niwa | When there is no moonlight in the garden |
| Omoi okite | I think when I wake up |
| Mune hashiribi ni | My breast ablaze |
| Kokoro yake ori | My soul consuming itself in fire. |
It is curious to note that the ladies declare their feeling more vividly than men, even when it is about the loss of the emperor, as in this longer poem:
| Utsusemi shi kami ni taeneba | Mortal am I whom gods will not suffer |
| Hanareite asa nageku kimi | Separate each morning I lament you |
| Sakariite waga kouru kimi | Gone away I long for you |
| Tama notaba te ni makimochite | Were he a jewel that I could hold in my hand |
| Kinu naraba nugu toki mo naku | Were he a robe that I could never take off |
| Waga kouru kimi zo kizo no yo | The Lord whom I love so, last night |
| Yume ni mietsuru | In my dream could I see. |
Concerning the phenomenon of more vibrant and less contained emotion in feminine poetry in Japan up to the present, one explanation is in the fact that women are allowed, by social morals and convention, to express a love that would be in the case of a man considered degrading to masculine pride and man's superiority.
The subject of love seems less attractive to Japanese poets than the beauty of nature, even in the more spontaneous classic anthologies of tanka. Among the twenty-six books of the Kokinshu, six are dedicated to nature and five to love. Many of the love poems are listed by the compilers as anonymous simply for the purpose of discretion.
SIGNIFICANCE OF JAPANESE LYRICISM IN WORLD POETRY
To conclude this chapter about classic poetry, we may say that in the rare cases in which old Japanese poets were not tied by the strict rules of tradition, they show a deep emotion, a high element of lyricism, a vehement strength, and a force and inspiration comparable to the best poetry of the West. We see it in the poetry of the Noh, which attains a force and eloquence unique in Japanese poetry. For mc, Motokiyo Zeami is the greatest poet of Japan. After Noh poetry, which goes back to the fifteenth century, we have to wait for the modern poets, inspired by the liberty enjoyed by their Western equals, to find a poetry of universal appeal both in its variety of themes and in its free form, rebellious against all the iron rules and inhibitions of the past. The ardent poems of Akiko Yosano have a strength, fervour, and inspired liberty that bring them into the class of the world's best poetry.
But on the whole when we consider Japanese classic poetry, even with its brevity and limited subject matter, we are moved and impressed by its immense production, by its beauty, and by the richness in the particular field that Japanese poets preferred to explore. Its most refined subtlety, its peculiar gift for deep suggestion and infinite gradation of shades represent a unique contribution to world poetry. Without Japanese classic poetry, one side of nature—its most delicate beauty—would still not be revealed.
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CHAPTER II. THE CLASSIC NOVEL |
THE BEGINNING OF THE NOVEL IN JAPAN
Japan produced the first great novel of world literature, Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji). The author, Murasaki Shikibu, was a court lady who lived in the tenth century.
The Tale of Genji was the culmination of a literary current which had produced other tales (monogatari) previously: Taketori Monogatari and Utsubo Monogatari, possibly from the same unknown writer; Ise Monogatari and its poor imitations; Yamato Monogatari; and Hamamatsu Chunagon Monogatari. Nearly all of these and the other tales or narratives which came afterwards told stories that were too complicated or fantastic, though brushed in most delicate tones.
Ochikubo Monogatari (The Tale of Lady Ochikubo) is nearer the idea of a novel than any of the others. In it there is a naïvely woven plot, some characterization, and a few poems sprinkled with images as subtle as: "Your love, as fleeting as a shade on a mirror."
The liveliest and largest collection of tales (one of the largest in the world) is the Konjaku Monogatari (Tales of Ages Ago). It includes more than one thousand tales collected from China, India, and Japan during the eleventh century. Its amazing variety, rich folklore, Oriental custom, legend, and Buddhist moral examples make it most enticing reading even today.
The monogatari were in such profusion that a critic of the time compared them with the grains of sand on Arisomi beach. The novel originated within the cultured circle of society that surrounded the emperor. Though written in a language which was not much regarded by scholars of the time (novels were written in Japanese, while the language used by Japanese scholars was Chinese), prose fiction was widely read by the court people. Through the diaries of the time we can see that the personalities in high positions read novels and even confessed their appreciation for them. The author of Sarashina Nikki, a court lady from the ruling Fujiwara family, tells us in her diary how much, she used to dream of the hero of Murasaki's novel: "The only thing that I could think of was the Shining Prince who would some day come to me, as noble and beautiful as in the romance."1
In China, on the contrary, all novels when they first appeared were considered frivolous and even subversive. The authors did not dare reveal their names. Confucian scholars and all learned people despised novels on account of their popular language and fictitious character. It was only after the Republic was formed that the Chinese recognized the novel as literature at all. In China, the novel appeared five centuries later than in Japan, and it took three centuries more to produce a masterpiece.
The first Chinese novel, San Kuo Chih Yen-i (History of Three Kingdoms), was written by Lo Kuan-chung during the early years of the Ming dynasty in the spoken language of the day. Shui Hu Chuan. (The Story of the Fringes of the Marsh), also written in the fifteenth century, centred around bung Chiang, a bandit famous for his ravages in the provinces of Honan and Shantung. The novel that in part is a continuation of Shui Hu Chuan is Chin Ping Met (Gold Vase Plum), written at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It represents a great advance because for the first time two of the central characters are feminine. Though the greatest part of this novel is pornographic, it has been considered the best novel on social manners of China. The next great Chinese novel is the Hung Lou Mêng (Dream of the
