No exchange of glances-a barren beach-
How I hate myself for it!
Doesn't he realise it,
Heedless of distance, the fisherman,
Coming and going on weary legs?
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I'd often read this and I have struggled over how this was intended by Ono no Komachi. In English I could never quite figure-out the format of the tanka. (That was where I was going wrong.) When looked at in Japanese this becomes one of the most technically written tanka I've ever seen. Komachi has often been seen as the highest artist in the use of kakekotobe, and to see it delivered, as here, in L1 is very unusual. (in the Japanese text only) alas it doesn't translate into the English version. The opening line in Japanese is miru me naki. Which contains a word play on miru me/mirume. mirume being a type of algae which is harvested and miru me, seeing eyes, (a honkadori expression relating to lovers meeting).
So the two images in the poem are...
Why do the fishermen return to this beach knowing that there is no mirume here? And;
Why does 'he' keep calling when there is no chance of us meeting?
L2. how I hate myself for it why does she hate herself? Is it that she would let him see her but she is too far away from where he is calling? And who is HE?
The more I look into this poem the more I like it.
Andrew
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