[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, I'm Patricia.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the I'm the host of the Poetry Peacars.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right then, tea's made.

[SPEAKER_00]: This gets at the ready.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm having a little oak-bickey.

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you having?

[SPEAKER_00]: And today we're going to dive headlong into the world of Fujiwara No Saiyde.

[SPEAKER_00]: Better known thankfully as Taker.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, take up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not a brand of herbal tea, although equally nourishing for the soul, but one of the greatest Japanese poets of his age.

[SPEAKER_00]: And before you roll your eyes and matter, oh, here she goes again, more ancient poetry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me reassure you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This chap.

[SPEAKER_00]: wasn't just scribbling flowery words by candlelight, owner.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was laying down poetic law, teaching his apprentices and occasionally having his family forge his work, although that did happen after he died.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quite the legacy, don't you think?

[SPEAKER_00]: But before we get stuck in, a gentle reminder to you, don't forget the latest video prompt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Which this month, if you're up to date, is being edited by the Marvelous Nina Singh.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the sort of thing that makes your muse sit up, stretch and demand another cup of tea.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as I said, I'm going to be talking about the poet, which you are at no say they will take her, as I'm now going to call him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was from a family of poets, and we're going to hear some of his father's poetry today, as well as his.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his descendants were also heavily involved in the poetry scene of their time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as you know, from listening to this podcast and this reading you do, poetry in this era, [SPEAKER_00]: was a very serious business with established rules and language.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take a, who was not just a poet, but a teacher, produced many pieces of work in his time, which pronounced on the techniques of poetry.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think they're going to be useful to all poets, not just those of us who write in the Japanese short form.

[SPEAKER_00]: But perhaps I should pause at this point and bring you a couple of examples of his work.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Traveller sleeves flapping in the wind on an autumn night.

[SPEAKER_00]: How lonely the bridge across the gorge.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Traveller sleeves flapping in the wind on an autumn night.

[SPEAKER_00]: How lonely the bridge across the gorge.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fujiwara no Tika translated by Philip Morrell.

[SPEAKER_00]: Day will dawn and we will pass beyond the midpoint of fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: But will them setting moon be all that we lament?

[SPEAKER_00]: Day will dawn and we will pass beyond the midpoint of fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: But will the setting moon be all that we lament?

[SPEAKER_00]: and that take a poem was translated by Stephen D.

Carter.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the many decades following his death, his family, as I alluded to, apparently forged work, purporting to be by him in order to bolster their own standing as masters at poetry.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you never quite sure which pieces of teaching were his or four trees, but there have been studies which tried to authenticate his writing.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it's thought that the document might get Susho was for the most part, created by him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today's podcast will draw heavily on a translation of that document by Robert H.

Rao.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why is the might get Susho important?

[SPEAKER_00]: Robert Browse says of it that it's one of the half dozen most important documents in the entire corpus of Japanese classical politics.

[SPEAKER_00]: and what we have in this document is in essence a copy of Taker's teaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a letter to one of his pupils who was in the early stages of learning the craft of poetry.

[SPEAKER_00]: In studying it, we gain a grounding in the discipline of Waka, which, as you know, was the forerunner of what we know called tanker.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're coming to Tanker for the first time, there are some podcasts I've done in the past, details in the show notes, and you can follow those up, and of course, the sources that I used today will also be cited in the show notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in this letter to his pupil, take a gives him ten styles of poetry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the ideas he proposes are similar to ideas that would be found in treaties by earlier poets.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to be honest, [SPEAKER_00]: You'll find some of the ideas which have been repeated by later poets.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, brawler says that my get-sucho contains classic statements of take-as-original poetic ideals.

[SPEAKER_00]: So should we take a look at those ten styles?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we should.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is mystery and depth.

[SPEAKER_00]: which perhaps we would know is, you can.

[SPEAKER_00]: For help with this, you could go and have a listen to another of our podcasts with a terrific contemporary poet, an editor of bottle robots, Stanford, or a star.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, our stick a link in the show notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to give you a definition of you can.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you forgive the pun, this one particularly rings true with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can, according to Robert T.

Wilson, is like an echo after the clang of a brass bell.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this world, the way does not exist.

[SPEAKER_00]: Troubled, I enter deep into the mountains, but even there I hear the dear crying.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this world, the way does not exist.

[SPEAKER_00]: troubled, I entered deep into the mountains, but even there I hear the deer crying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was by Taker's father, Pujewarano Shumsai, translated by Hirawaki Saito.

[SPEAKER_00]: Commentators are not sure what's on the mind of the poet in this poem, and there are many explanations as to what was going through his head.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was it his own personal turmoil about whether to take Buddhist vows?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was it his awareness of his own mortality?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe even the dissatisfaction at the state of his world.

[SPEAKER_00]: The her own period was coming to a close when he was writing this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, thinking about what's going on in our own world at the moment, I'm sure many of us could understand that feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: D.T.

[SPEAKER_00]: Suzuki says of you, can that it's an object of mutual communication, only among those who have the feeling of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you listen, do you have the feeling of it?

[SPEAKER_00]: In this poem?

[SPEAKER_00]: In this world, the way does not exist.

[SPEAKER_00]: Troubled, I enter deep into the mountains.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even there, I hear the dear crying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Baker's second style was appropriate statement.

[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is that a poem should be composed so that it seems to glide as smoothly as a drop of water rolling down the length of a five-foot iris leaf.

[SPEAKER_00]: So set the priest, Shini.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought that was rather elegant.

[SPEAKER_00]: weary of the world I thought to hide myself away in this mountain village, but it reaches every corner of the night bright radiance of the moon.

[SPEAKER_00]: weary of the world I thought to hide myself away in this mountain village, but it reaches every corner of the night bright radiance of the moon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was, take as father again, who do you are at no shansai?

[SPEAKER_00]: Translated, I believe, by Brawl.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think when you visualize a poem, gliding as smoothly as a drop of water rolling down the length of a five foot iris leaf, and listen to this poem, you can see what shuntie meant.

[SPEAKER_00]: weary of the world I thought to hide myself away in this mountain village, but it breaches every corner of the night bright radiance of the moon.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the style of appropriate statement is very similar to the next fundamental style, elegant beauty.

[SPEAKER_00]: which is characterized by harmony balance and beauty of cadence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beauty of cadence.

[SPEAKER_00]: I rather like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Expression.

[SPEAKER_00]: This style I felt was difficult to show with a poem translated from the Japanese.

[SPEAKER_00]: As so much depends on the skill of the translator.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought I'd use something contemporary [SPEAKER_00]: rather than one of takers examples.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I've chosen these poems.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wax Wing Winter, all my unsent letters in a wooden box wrapped in shadows.

[SPEAKER_00]: How you touch me still.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wax Wing Winter, all my unsent letters in a wooden box.

[SPEAKER_00]: wrapped in shadows how you touch me still.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's by CX Turner and it achieved a first place in the fleeting world tanker contest, twenty twenty four.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wind swept hill.

[SPEAKER_00]: The smell of summer rain rises with birds on.

[SPEAKER_00]: The brooding thunder cloud seems suddenly far afield.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wind swept hill.

[SPEAKER_00]: The smell of summer rain rises with birds on.

[SPEAKER_00]: The brooding thunder cloud seems suddenly far afield.

[SPEAKER_00]: and that's by a fellow Swiss Benjamin Blazy and it got third place in the fleeting world tanker contest, twenty twenty four.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're on YouTube, you can have a look at these poems.

[SPEAKER_00]: The short long short long-long lines do, I think, give a balance to the poem.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you read them out loud, they have that beauty of cadence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And consider the topics.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you think about the topic and the language they've used to express their poetry, they're in harmony with each other, aren't they?

[SPEAKER_00]: So, takers fourth, style was deep feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he explains that the greatest worker should not merely display technical polish or cleverness, but should be animated by a deeply sincere emotional core.

[SPEAKER_00]: He used the word, Ushin, conviction or feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you meant that the poem was carrying authentic intense inner emotion.

[SPEAKER_00]: That compels expression.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not enough to imitate old styles, pile up elegant phrases or master rhetorical devices without that conviction that you shin.

[SPEAKER_00]: The poem can feel hollow.

[SPEAKER_00]: but be aware.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, take her insisted that this feeling must be disciplined and shaped by craft, so that the raw emotion is elevated into beauty and resonance.

[SPEAKER_00]: So probably, I think, when take a speaks of conviction of feeling, he's saying that the great poetry arises from a union of true, deeply felt emotion with poetic technique.

[SPEAKER_00]: that your reader should sense both the sincerity of heart and the refinement of form.

[SPEAKER_00]: And take a use this one to illustrate this style.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, jeweled thread of life, if you are to break, then break now.

[SPEAKER_00]: For if I live on my ability to hide my love, will most surely weaken [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, jeweled thread of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are to break, then break now.

[SPEAKER_00]: For if I live on my ability to hide my love, will most surely weaken.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's Princess Shikishi, translated by Dr.

Joshua Mosto.

[SPEAKER_00]: And a little side note for you here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take it also says that this style is fundamental to all of the others.

[SPEAKER_00]: The fine poetry he says has been said to be possible only when every poem is diffused with deep feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although he does mention that it's particularly useful when writing love poetry or grief, expressing grief.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now these first four of his styles are the fundamental styles that you should look at first he says.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you've mastered them, you can move on to the more difficult styles.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, should we go and have a look at those styles too?

[SPEAKER_00]: The fifth style, he called the lofty style.

[SPEAKER_00]: A method of achieving grandeur and elevation.

[SPEAKER_00]: As the coming dawn pushes open the gate of heaven, from behind the clouds, still streams the splendor of a moon radiant since the age of the gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: As the coming dawn pushes open the gate of heaven, from behind the clouds, still streams the splendor of a moon radiant since the age of the gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's Fujiwara, your shitsune.

[SPEAKER_00]: Translated by bra.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, word to the wise, don't go overboard.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to, quote, take again, over elaborate or contrived poetry.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could lose the emotional deep feeling if you try too hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: The sixth style is visual description.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both Brow as translation notes and Jane Reichhold speak rather disparagingly about this style saying, this is a rather bland style emphasizing visual description and imagery and often containing no subjective or emotional statements.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard folks say similar things about shikis, sachet or sketch of life, haven't you?

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, if you're not sure what that is, there are podcasts about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's basically writing the scene, which sits before you in order to give your reader an insight into what you're looking at.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like this poem.

[SPEAKER_00]: As evening falls through the rice plants before the gate, it comes visiting and rustling on the reads of the simple hunt.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Autumn Wind does blow.

[SPEAKER_00]: As evening falls, through the rice plants before the gate, it comes visiting and rustling on the reads of the simple hut.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Autumn Wind does blow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's Minamoto, Sonobu.

[SPEAKER_00]: Translated by Dr.

Joshua Nostal.

[SPEAKER_00]: I possibly might translate this a little differently.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all have different stars of translation, don't we?

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, in this poem, the poet is sitting in front of a villa in Umizo, which is now a suburb of Kyoto.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at that time, way back in the eleven hundreds, was in the countryside.

[SPEAKER_00]: So not only do we get a beautiful scene from the poet, but as readers of a different age, as a little bit of historical geography in there, which makes me very happy.

[SPEAKER_00]: The seventh style is termed clever treatment, so that's a witty or ingenious treatment of a conventional topic.

[SPEAKER_00]: and take a quote's this example.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I presume translated by Brewer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though it was only I who came out into the garden, leaving footprints in the snow, will people think some visitors brought comfort to my loneliness?

[SPEAKER_00]: Though it was only I who came out into the garden, leaving footprints in the snow, [SPEAKER_00]: Will people think some visitor has brought comfort to my loneliness?

[SPEAKER_00]: And that poem was Archbishop Jens.

[SPEAKER_00]: The eighth style is novel treatment.

[SPEAKER_00]: A little bit like the previous style, it's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this time we're using an unusual or original poetic conception.

[SPEAKER_00]: And take a quote, a poem by Fujiwara Mortazani, which gets that treatment on the theme of love.

[SPEAKER_00]: A river of tears floats my body off on its current.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it cannot dwell the fire you have set in my heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: A river of tears floats my body off on its current.

[SPEAKER_00]: but it cannot quail the fire you have set in my heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Could you are a modern A?

[SPEAKER_00]: This time translated by Jane Reichord.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ninth style, exquisite detail.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this style is indicated by exact and precise details with often complex imagery.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, quite a difficult style to get right.

[SPEAKER_00]: A thousand things overcome me with their sadness as I gaze upon the moon, although the autumn was not meant to be felt by me alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: A thousand things overcome me with their sadness as I gaze upon the moon, although the autumn was not meant to be felt by me alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: or you know Chisato translated by Rao.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this poem strikes me as a little overcomplicated for today's taste in Tankham.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, it does illustrate the style.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's certainly symbolism and imagery.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though we at this modern day Western readers might not get it, contemporary readers, and perhaps current Japanese readers would understand it better.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that doesn't mean we can't write in this style.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a more modern poem, which I think might illustrate the point.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll forget I saw you standing with a stupified look, hands holding your breasts, when an earthquake shook this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So bring me a drink, my dear.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll forget I saw you standing with a stupified look, hands holding your breasts, when an earthquake shook this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So bring me a drink, my dear.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was Tekan, your sano, writing in the eighteen hundreds.

[SPEAKER_00]: And lastly, [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most difficult styles, according to Taker, called the demon quelling style.

[SPEAKER_00]: Creating poetry in this style, the intensity of expression is so fierce that it feels as if it could drive away demons.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this style refers to poems whose imagery or treatment conveys an impression of violence, for example.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's quite contrary to our expectation of the gentle nature poem we're quite used to, or the melodic cadence of that love poem.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's probably why it take us suggested we don't have a go at it until we're proficient at the other styles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Its key features then would be emotional intensity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike the refined subtlety of his eugen or ushen poems, these verses will burn with urgency, anger or grief.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll find that the diction and the rhythm is quite harsh too.

[SPEAKER_00]: The language sometimes breaks unexpected elegance, giving the verse a raw, almost violent force.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have a listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the vast sea, the waves encroach and thunder upon the quaking shore, breaking, smashing, riving, falling in great sheets of spray.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the vast sea, the waves encroach and thunder upon the quaking shore, breaking, smashing, arriving, falling in great sheets of spray.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's Sanitomo translated by braw.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the end of the ten styles, a lot to mull over and practice perhaps.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next week I'll do some more thoughts from Taker on the writing of Wacker Stroke Tanker and I'll give you some exercises which I'll check out myself this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: See if they work.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll look at some more contemporary tanker to get you in the mood to write.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because next month, again, if you're listening in real time, we're writing tanker.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there we have it.

[SPEAKER_00]: take his ten styles from the delicately melancholic to the full-on demon-coiling thunder club.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not bad for a man whose family couldn't resist, cheekily, forging a few extras in his name.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do hope you're going to have a go at one or two of the styles yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though, if you do attempt the demon-coiling sort, best worn the neighbours first, in case they call the police when they hear you're reciting this violent poetry out loud.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all for now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do make sure you check out the video prompt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, if you're listening, watching in real time, it's lovingly curated this month by Nina Singh.

[SPEAKER_00]: It might just nod you towards writing a superior.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, till next time, keep experimenting with those styles.

[SPEAKER_00]: And remember, as self-consciously fancy verse is as take a big fat no-no.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he might not actually use those words.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure he'd be much more eloquent.

[SPEAKER_00]: So until next time, keep writing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And remember, there are links and sources in the show notes for you to follow up if you're interested.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ciao!