Excursions in Poetry
Yakamochi:
Half A Life in Poetry
E Bruce Brooks
This book is a selection of 100 poems from the Japanese anthology Manyoshu, by Yakamochi and others, from the greats of the previous generation (Hitomaro and Okura) to the bright lights of the age in which he grew up (Akahito; Yakamochi's father Tabito), and some of his lady loves. The original compilation, in which he had a hand, consists of 16 topically arranged Books. The last four Books are Yakamochi's own poetic diary, covering years of duty in the provinces, and then a last glimpse of the capital. There is much here that is impressive in one way or another, but perhaps best of all are those moments when Yakamochi is simply letting a moment of natural beauty speak through him.
This poetry, some of it actually in Chinese, came from a period of intense Chinese influence, and reflects the competition between Chinese and Japanese as the language of the court and its poetry. That war was soon to be lost to the Chinese faction; Yakamochi himself more or less abandoned poetry in his unknown last years. The tradition of literature in the Japanese language was carried on by the court ladies of Heian: Murasaki and Shonagon. Yakamochi had mounted a last systematic defense of the Japanese poetic tradition, with himself as its last master practitioner. It failed, but his errofts remain not only as his own monument, but as a witness to an age.
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