The Expanse and the Limits of a New Anthology

8/13/2019 The Expanse and the Limits of a New Anthology

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Marginalia. The Expanse and the Limits of a New AnthologyFrom the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry. by Hiroaki Sato;Burton WatsonReview by: William R. LaFleurMonumenta Nipponica, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), pp. 191-205

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MarginaliaTheExpanse ndtheLimits f NewAnthologyby WILLIAM R. LAFLEUR

From heCountryfEightslands:AnAnthologyfJapaneseoetry.Edited y Hiroaki ato& BurtonWatson.

UniversityfWashingtonress, 981.xliv+ 652 pages. $17.50..... a definitionf poetry really ove: "poetry s that anguage whichwhenwrittenoesnotreach rommarginomargin." LEW WELCH'PTYthe erson ho, ponhearing entionfJapaneseIFronihe Gountr i poetry,ven oday till hinksnly fhaikuor assumesofEight slandsthat theJapanese eoplewerencapable fwritingnythingother than poetic miniatures. Over the decades of thetwentiethentury ranslators ave extracted ne poeticgenre afteranotherfromotherwisenaccessiblehidingplaces ntheJapaneseanguage ndthesehave all becomequite accessible in Western anguages. Now with thepublicationfSatoandWatson'smportantew nthology,FromtheCountry fEight Islands, nd its anticipatedwidecirculation,ll excusesfortheearliermyopicviewshouldfall wayforever. anyofthese oemshaveappeared arlier,speciallynHiroakiSato's excellent ranslations f modernJapanesepoets, in BurtonWatson'stranslationsfChineseversewrittenyJapanese, ndinhiswork ntheversatilepoetRyokan. incethere sno doubt hatbothSatoandWatson reskilled rans-lators ndsincemost f hese ranslationsavebeenreviewedwhen hey ppeared

THE AUTHOR is Associate Professor ofJapanese,epartmentfOrientalanguages,UniversityfCalifornia,os Angeles.

1 Lew Welch,How I Work s a Poet,GreyFox Press,1973,p. 61.


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192 MonumentaNipponica, xxviii:in earlier ubications,mypurposeherewillbe the double one of ooking t howthisnewbook functionsnd satisfiess an anthologynd atcertain elativelyewquestions hatemerge rom hisanthology oncerninghe translationctivityitself,specially or hoseofus involvedntheprocess frendering apanese erseintoWesternanguages.From heCountry f Eight slands ertainlyearsout the claimmade for tbyThomas Rimer n theIntroduction, amely,This anthology, hen, s designedto showsomethingf thecomplexityndrichness f well overa thousandyearsofpoetry' p. xxxiv).The temporal overage lone is impressivend commend-able: themany enturies f versebeginning ith ongs ntheKojikiand endingwithpoetswho are still alive and writing oday.Because thisvolumemakesabundant se ofSato'sfine ranslationsfmodern erse,tachieves goodbalancebetween raditionalnd morerecent orms-somethinghat s boundto impressthose of us who deal withthemoreclassical tradition nd remainrelativelyignorantfJapanese erse nmorerecent enturies. likeparticularlyheway nwhich histemporal omprehensivenessrovides omethingn additionfor thereaderwho goes throughhis volumefrom tsbeginningo itsend, namely,choiceopportunityorecapitulatehe wideningftheJapanese xperience f thegeo-spatialworld:perceptions,ubject-matter,iction, nd even the forms fpoetrymatch hisprogressivextrospection. ith sufficientassageoftime, hepoetsfrom heCountryfEight slands, n archaicnameforJapan, ettheir yricimaginationsollow and on some occasions evenprecede) theirfeetabroad,eventhough he domestic ull oftheplaces oftheutamakuralwaysremainedstrong.This showsespeciallyn thewaythekanshibyJapanesepoetshave been in-tegratedere.BurtonWatson's lear kill nrenderingheparallelismnd cadencesof verse n Chinese and in incorporatinghese ntothe anthology t preciselythosehistoricalunctureswhen theJapanesewere mostintenselynterestednChinapreventshesefrom ver eemingntrusivena volume fJapanese erses.Thereader sabletorecapture n important oint nthehistoryfman's iteraryimagination henpermittedereto follow hoseJapanesemonkswhotraveledto China and recordedwhatthey aw in versewrittenn Chinese.The horizonof theJapanese iterarymagination asexpanded y poet-monksuch s SessonYtibai ('Wonderful,his three-footword of the GreatYuan, /sparklingwithcoldfrost ver en housandmiles,' . 230),and Zekkai Chfishin'Nights stay na temple mong hepeaks,/morningsmakefor heMao Lake boat,'p. 232).Likewisewhen heEight slands'poets nmore ecent imes raveled venmoreextensivelyo see otherAsian islands nd thefarther ontinents f EuropeandAmerica, here s both a sense ofstrangenessnd an efforto render hesenewworlds omehow amiliar. orthe nti-militaristaneko Mitsuharu here s a newcommonalitynthe objectsof thesatire n his Sharks' of the thirties'A blade'sglittering,ine, rritations.The shark. He has no heart,he's the brutal one


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LAFLEUR: Marginalia 193who ridesthisworld,'p. 523). IshiharaYoshir6's experience f Siberia 'Only,through strange and where t's alwaysmidday n the right nd midnight nthe left the traingoes on running,' . 596) is somehownot so differentromTomioka Taeko's of New York ('We have yet o come across/ funeral roces-sion on this sland,'p. 614).But t s inTakamuraKotaro's almost rchaicway ofgreeting celebratedandmarknParis that he senseof being n a strange laceis fusedwith motions suallydeemed ppropriate orplaces like Yoshino andNaniwa; the cathedral tonesof Notre Dame almostgain acceptance s an uta-makuramet na foreignand ('Cathedral,youwhowatchmotionlesshehousesof Parissufferinghe storm pleasedo not thinkme rude,/who, handson yourcornerstone,hashishot cheekpressed n your kin/ t's me, the drunken ne. /It's that Japanese,' . 467). Comprehensivenessught, suppose, o be part ofwhat s expected n any nthology, artof tsdefinition. owever, here an be nodoubt that Watson'sfacilityn translatinganshi nd Sato's in modernversehave given hisvolume scope that s quite unusual.Likewise, find ommendable he translators' ecisionto include genresofpoetry rom he classical raditions hich more centrist' reatment ight aveneglected. rower ndMiner's horough epiction f therise nd developmentfthe tanka nJapaneseCourt oetry2 as now beencomplemented ythe atter'sJapanese inkedPoetry,3nd these two volumes ogether o well describe ndillustratehe developmentst the center f the Japanese oetictradition hatwetoday reapttoneglect hoseforms fversewhichwere ften ess well stablishedand moreephemeralnJapan,poeticworlds hatmay havebeenonlysatellitesbutwhich an do much o demonstratehediversityf technique, ubjectmatter,diction, nd tone nthis oetry. am pleased hat ato and Watson hose o ncludemany hoka,kagura, aibara, ome of thewonderful ut unconventionalongsoftheRyojinHishJ, anshi eginninglreadywith hoseof Sugawarano Michizane,a goodselection rom heGozan literature,enryf7,nd kouta rom heKanginshz7.Likewise, heir ecision o include hetext f at least one noh play s correct ndsignificant;uch texts re importantn any history f Japanese erse nd oughtnotbe excluded imply ecause theywereprimarilyntended or he theater.Myreasonsfordisliking heir hoice of Teika to represent oh will be givenbelow,buttheformal ecision o incorporatehisgenre s poetrys one I wouldrush oapplaud.As Donald Keene didearliernhis own anthologies,ato and Watsoninsist nthetraditionalmportancefgenres nd works hatwere hemselvesotalways t the exact social and artistic enter f the tradition hey nthologize.Withso muchdiversitynd complexityf forms n theirhands, however,tappearsthat Sato and Watson must have worried bout waysof showing helines fcontinuitynthe radition. imer's ntroductionelpsmuch nthis egard,

2 RobertH. Brower& Earl Miner,JapaneseCourtPoetry, tanfordU.P., 1961.3 Earl Miner,JapaneseLinked Verse: AnAccount with Translations of Renga andHaikai Sequences,PrincetonU.P., 1979.


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194 MonumentaNipponica, xxviii:2buta careful eading fthework eveals hat he ditorshemselvesddressedhisproblemn at leasttwodetectableways,neitherf which eems xactlyuccessfulto me. If theyhad chosen o introduceach majorpoet or key work withbriefprose ntroductions,heymight ave been ble nthese osuggesthe ndebtednessof aterpoetsto earlier nesor tellof themain tructuresf allusion ppearingnthe subsequent ranslations. he lineaments f the traditionwould thushavestoodout quiteeffectivelynd naturally. utthisbook has taken nother oute,thatofidentifyingiteraryebts nd allusionsby multiple ootnoteshatdanglefromnumeralsmbeddednthepoems themselves.omeof thesemight n rareoccasionsbenecessary,uttheres somethingestheticallyrongwhen ageafterpage ofpoems n a volumehas bags of informationalallasthanging rom hewordsof thosepoems,wordswhich ught o be free noughforflightnand bythemselvesy virtue f havinghad thenecessaryognitivematerialworkedntothe structuref the poemsthemselvesythatpoint.This is not to denythatasensitivityo allusivenessmay add greatlyo the appreciation f a givenverse;it s merelyo saythat translatorf yricshould voidcausing he nterruptioninreading hat akesplacewhendigital ointerstuck o a poem force hereadermidwayogoinsearch f nformationlsewherehatmightellhimwhat hepoemis really bout-in spiteof existing leasure lreadyfoundwithin hepoemaspresented.

Actually,hewisdom f thiswasimplicitntheancient ast Asian usageofthepoetic headnote',a practicerecognizinghatprosyand strictlynformationalmatter s aesthetically uchmoretolerablef t comesprior o theactual poemitself.n such a placeit s not ntrusivend can actually rime herecipient'saroreyeso that he maginationtself s prepared or he poemto come; it createsa frame f semantic nd aesthetic xpectations.Many of the kotobagaki hatintroduce apanese ankado preciselyhis-as do theprosepieces n haibun. hefootnote,ycontrast,s ourdevice, nd itsusageought, think,o be restrictedtoprose lone.Thedifferenceetweenhe headnote nd thefootnotes tremen-dous,and it s oneoftheunfortunateronies fFrom heCountryfEight slandsthat ts editorshaveomittedmanyof thevaluableheadnotes f the tanka-andinWatson's ase,even hemakurakotoba-thereuthave ddedmultipleootnotesthat are fastenedikebarnaclesonto some of thefinest yrics n theJapaneselanguage.A second meansthroughwhich his volumesuggests hefibers f continuityin theJapanesepoetic traditions throughhepresentationf certain oetsasthey ppearand reappear n variousrefashioningsnd invariousgenres-poetswho themselvesecametopicsor whoseopuswas reworked y aterpoets.Thisis especiallymportantn an anthology f Japaneseverse.Although he namesand workof manypoetssurface gainand again in thisvolume, t wouldseemto be Fujiwarano Teika, 1162-1241,who does a specialdegreeof such workhere.We first eehim s a tankapoetthroughighty-fourfhis own yrics, p.


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LAFLEUR: Marginalia 195192-201, nd then s a compilernd anthologizer imselfnthe translation ereof hisEiga Taigai,pp. 202-18.This works erywell. think, owever, hatTeikagetsto be overworkedr asked to carry oo much ofthisburden fcontinuitywhen noh play about him s selected o serve s thesole instance f thispoeticgenre n theanthology. eika,a playattributedo Zenchiku,s an opaquelyal-lusiveplay and, at least n Sato's rendering ere,has thepoetic qualitiesof theoriginalovered verbynumerals, otes, nd therepeated ecessityo chasedowncross-referencest the bottom f thepage.It is unfortunatehat his nthology'sone chanceto presenthe yric eauty nd imagistic owerofthisgenre f ongpoemis so squanderedn a newbututterlyifeless ranslation,speciallywhenobviously etter nes arereadily vailable.Although hey hemselves avenotes,almost nyoftheexistingohpieces nTwenty laysoftheNo Theatre4dited yDonald Keene would have servedmuchbetter o demonstratehatthisgenre san eminentlyoeticone; at least hispointwouldnotthenhave beensacrificedothenecessityfshowingmerelyhatnoh spackedwith llusions.This is not theonly place where think ato and Watson wouldhave donebetter o tap existingranslationsor use in their nthology ather hando anddo overagainthewhole of the tradition ythemselves.n such a herculean elf-assignmentt s inevitable hat ertain enres re boundto suffer. his s notablythe case intheir reatmentf inkedverse.Anyclosecomparisonwith he sensi-tive and accurate ranslation f Yuyama anginHyakuin y StevenD. Carter5will eavemostreaderswondering hy ato felt henecessityo providehisownmuch esssatisfyingersionwhen uch a clearly uperior ne already xists,wasknown o him, ndcouldhavebeen ncorporated,nemust ssume,f n attempthad beenmadeto do so. In fact, heeditors ever tate xactlywhy hey hose toanthologize heirown translationsn every nstance ather han selectand in-corporateome thathad already eenvery apablydoneby others.On thispointthe volumecontrastsharplywithSunflowerplendor: hreeThousandYearsofChinese oetry, ditedbyWu-chiLiu and IrvingYuchengLo,6 an anthology fwhat heeditors aketo be thebest xtantndavailable ranslationsfevery oetthey nclude.One must dmire he ambition nd prodigious ffortxpended ySato and Watsoneven fone must lso wonder bout their hoice to filterhewhole of two and a halfmillennia f versethroughhemselveslone-that is,throughhe inguisticreferences,cholarly reparation,nd stylistichoicesoftwopersons nd twopersons nly. t is a choice bound to ensure certain ni-formityf tone and technique, ut it is also one whichplacescertain nherentlimitations ponthe final roduct s well.

I Donald Keene, ed., Twenty lays of theNo Theatre, olumbia U.P., 1970.5 Steven D. Carter, 'Three Poets ofYuyama: Sagi and Yuyama Sangin Hyakuin,1491', in MN xxxiii:1 & 2 (1978), pp. 119-

49 & 241-83. This translation s referred oon p. 647 of the Select Bibliography n theSato & Watson anthology.6 AnchorPress, 1975.


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196 MonumentaNipponica, xxviII: 2Thismay be connected o thereasonswhythepublication f thisanthology

has beenaccompanied ysomethingf a smallflapon theordinarilyuite quietwaters f ourdiscipline. he excitement as stemmed romHiroakiSato's newlyadopted ndunconventionalayofrenderingheclassic hirty-one-syllableankain English.Althoughn an earlier et oftankatranslationse had followed heconventional ractice f structuringhis verse-formn multipleines,7he laterunderwent change fmind boutthis nd inFromTheCountryfEight slandshas representedll Japanese anka nEnglish s one-line oems or whatwouldhave beenone-line oems fonly heprinting argins ftheWestern-styleookwould have permittedt). To my knowledgenone of the major students fJapaneseverse ikes this nnovation erymuch; Earl Miner,forone, stateshisreaction uitesuccinctly:newstyle ato with ne-line anka drivesmecrazy.8Althoughhere s no virtuenperpetuatingflapbeyondtsreasonableifetime,there re someinterestingssues raisedbySato's newwayofdoingtanka and,since some ofthesehave notyetbeenpursued o thepointwhere heyyield smuchgainas possible, think hematter eservesmoreattention efore eingdropped.Certainlyhe ommon eaderwhopicksupandreads his nthology illprobably emain otally naware hat Sato's tanka n English re a breakwithconvention;he book itself s virtuallymute bout thematter. he Translators'Note simply tates: Sato translates traditional" anka,hokku, nd haiku ntoone-line orm xceptwhen, s in thecase of IshikawaTakuboku, helineationis specified y thepoet; elsewhere e more often hannot translateshe com-bination f5-7 or7-5 syllable nits s one line' p. vii).It is themore pecialized eader, speciallyheperson ngaged nthestudy fJapanese iterature, howillbe curious bout Sato's specific easonsfordoingwhathe has done. To myknowledge he onlyplace wherehe has defended hisapproach s inthepagesof the iteraryournalMontemora; here, s an accom-panimento histranslationf Fujiwarano Teika's Eiga Taigai, he wrote fewpages titledTranslating anka in One-LineForm.'9The presentationhere slaconicbut Sato's reasons are interesting.ecause even scholarsdealing withJapanmayhave somedifficultyocating his ssay, tdeserves bit ofrecapitula-tion ndanalysishere ince ts mportanceor he newanthologysgreat.If understandato correctly,hefirst f hisreasons or ne-line anka ransla-tions shisstrictnsistence ponfidelity-inhis ase fidelityvento thearrange-ment nd appearance n paper of thepoems ntheoriginalanguage.He writes:'I translateanka none-line orm,or his stheway hegreatmajority fmodernJapanese oetshave their ankaprintednd this s thewaymostscholars ran-scribe lassictanka."' Laterin this essay, Sato notessome exceptions o this

' Hiroaki Sato, tr., Poems of PrincessShikishi,GranitePublications, 973.8 A reviewof From the Country f EightIslands, n jJs 8:2 (1982), pp. 388-91; quote,p. 390.

I Hiroaki Sato, 'Translating Tanka inOne-Line Form', in Montemora4 (1978),pp. 178-80.10 Ibid., p. 178.


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LAFLEUR: Marginalia 197rule; IshikawaTakuboku,1886-1912, or nstance,was among the early inea-tors' nd wrote n three inesof varyingengths:"

t5kainokojimano isonoshirasuna i 5-7-5warenakinurete 7kani to tawamuru 7In the asternea,on thewhiteandofan island each,drownedn tearsI playwith crab

Butaccordingo Sato thisuseof ineationwas experimental'nd as suchproveshis point,somethinglso reinforcedy the fact that the experiment as alsoephemeral.Having playedwiththe Western hingcalled the poetic line,thewritersf tankareturnedgainto the one-line orm.Here, ccording o Sato,theweight f thetraditionwas simply oo heavy, factthat now should nfluencetranslatorss well. To be trueto the tankatheyoughtto showfidelityo itsfundamentalnilinearity.The secondmajor argumenthat have ocated nthe somewhat erse, lmosttelegraphic,roseof Sato's essay s thefollowing. e feels hat o think ftankaas a structuref discrete emantic nits na 5-,7-, 5-, 7-,7-patterns to beliethefacts fthe historyf thisverse orm.He objects o taking ach of thesupposedfive-syllablend seven-syllableequencesas necessarily avinga discrete ndseparablemeaning-whathe callsa 'thinkableelf-sufficiency',he definitionf a'line' whichSato borrowsfromGeorgeSaintsbury.12y the logic of thisthe'lines' presented y.mosttanka translatorsimply annot qualify s such. Satoargues hat hehistoryf tankashowspreciselyhis,namely, changing atternof semantic nits.The first ankain theKojiki-and also in the Eight slandsanthology-ought,ccordingo Sato,be lineated s follows13

yakumo atsu zumoyaegaki 5-7tstumaominiyaegitsukuru 5-7sonoyaegakio 7Eightfoldence f zumowhereightlouds ise,I make n eightfoldenceo etmywife tayn,that ightfoldence

Sato's point s that n terms f thinkable elf-sufficiency'nd in terms f thepoem's nternal ugire,rpause,this sreally poemof 12-, 12-,7-. Therefore,anysenseof5-, 7-, 5-, 7-, 7- is veryweakand thisweakness ontinuesn evenlaterwhen hekugire ppears omove. npoemno.994oftheMan'yoshui,tomoI Ibid., p. 179.12 George Saintsbury,Historical ManualofEnglish rosody, chocken,1966, p. 286.13 Sato, 'TranslatingTanka in One-Line

Form', p. 178; also From the CountryofEight Islands, p. 3. Sato's versionin FromtheCountry ifferslightly.


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198 MonumentaNipponica, xxviII:2no Yakamochi, 16?-785,provides tankathatmostproperly ouldbe lineatedas follows:'4furisaketemikazukimireba 5-7 (= 12)hitomemishi itonomayobiki mohoyuruamo 5-7-7 (= 19)As I turn round nd see the rescent oon,I think fthe yebrowfsomeone had a glimpsefAs iswellknown, hekugire lips o an even owerpositionn the ninthentury.A tankabyAriwarano Narihira, 25-880, ntheKokinshfis:15

yononaka i taete akuranonakariseba 5-7-5 (=17)harunokokorowa nodokekaramashi 7-7 (= 14)If theworld adno cherriestall,the pring ould eel o soothingIn the Montemora ssaySato goes on to statethatthis weakness' n thesenseof sevens nd fivesmight rguefor hetranslationf tanka na lineation f twolines; he notes hatEdwardSeidenstickerid, nfact, o structurehe tanka thatappear nhis translationfGenjiMonogatari,husmutely estifyingo a senseofthis ame weakness'.But Sato's presentationf thesevariationsnthehistoryfthe tanka s reallyintendedodestroyhebasisfor ny ineation f t ntranslation. ispoint, t eastif read him orrectly,s that speciallyhosewho ineatenthefive-lineorm respending heir ime nd energiesmitatingndrendering mirage. hey retryingto reproducen the recipient iteratureomethinghatscarcely xistedor, atleast, had little oetic significancen thedonor tradition.What is importantsthefact hat lassical oetsrepresentedanka none ine.Thus,Sato holds hathisownunlineated ranslationsfthe tankado not envision structure herenoneoriginallyxisted; heymerely eplicaten English he past and present racticeof tankapoets nJapan.As suchthey re more xact nd accurate.I trust hat havehereunderstood,eproduced,nd unpacked ato's argumentsagainst ineation. mustgo on to note hat hese rguments ave notbeen readily

accepted.A defense ftheolderpractice f ineation as beenmadeby Earl Mineron at least two occasions16 nd the majorpoints nthisrebuttal re as follows.Minerbeginswith concession: It is true hatJapanese id nothave the senseof solated ines s radical onstituentsuchas wefindnWestern oetry.'17Miner snot at allwilling, owever,o concede hehistoricalrgumento Sato.He asks, for nstance,whymakurakotoba,r pillow words, lways appeared nfive-syllablenits nd never n sevens, hus suggestinghat this was not an ar-14 Sato, 'Translating Tanka in One-LineForm', p. 178. To make Sato's point moreclear, I have added the calculations thatappear intheparentheses.15 Ibid., p. 179.

16 In addition to the review cited above,see also an 'EpistolaryReview' withHiroakiSato inJournal f the Association fTeachersof Japanese, 4:2 (1979), pp. 181-93.17 'EpistolaryReview', p. 191.


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LAFLEUR: Marginalia 199bitrarymatter ven nancient imes.Moreover,hepresence f elements f inea-tion tructuresevidencedythefact hatwe can scanwaka,renga, nd haikai-as wecannotmodern ree erse-in terms ffives nd sevens s lines.'He also callsattention o referenceo thematter f5-7, 5-7 lines' nKomparuZenchiku ndto an acrostic oeminEiga Monogatari orwhich sense of lines' would seemnecessaryn order o decipher he hiddenmessage.To thesepointsMinerwrylyadds a very ractical roblem hatone wouldencounterfSato's rulewere o befollowednall forms fJapanese erse;with bitofbanterhenotes: Iftheone-line-for-the-wholerinciple olds in waka, translations f choka will ook verystrangendprobably equire scroll ather hana book."8Thus thematters farfromettled. n thehistorical oints ne would havetoconcludethat neither ato norMinerhas presented n open-and-shutase. Itseemsto methatSato has marshaled nough vidence o supporthisclaimthatthe senseof sevens ndfivesnthehistoryf the tanka smuchweaker hanwehave sometimesssumed.On the otherhand,Minerhas shown hatone shouldnot rush o theopposite onclusion nd assumethat uch a sense was notat allpresentnthehistoryf thisverse-form.n the basis ofthesematerials t wouldseem best to draw theconclusion hat a sense ofunitsof sevens nd fiveswaspresent istoricallyutthat uchwasexperienced ythepoetas a faint lip nthemindwhenhe had reached hemargins fcertain nits,not as a strong ignaldemandinghathemovedowntothenextline'.At thepresenttate f historicalresearch n thistopictherewould seemto be no basis to say more. But it is agood topic ndought nspiremuchmorehistoricaltudy.I think, owever,hatwe neednotawaitthe result f such historicaltudies ocometo a muchmore esoluteudgmentoncerninghe pplicabilityotranslationofthe hings otedby Sato. It should lmostgowithoutaying hat he onventiontillnowofgenerallyresentinganka nfiveines houldnot tself eter xperimentswithnewmethods; here s no value nmerely dopting conservativetance nthis or he akeofconservationlone. believe, owever, hat here re goodandcompelling easonswhywe oughtnot followSato in rendering anka as one-liners.n givinghesehere hopethat omeaspectsof translating apanese ersemaybe clarifiedndthatreasonsformy omewhat eservedudgment bout thesuccessofFrom heCountryfEight slandsmaybe made clear as well.Myreasons rebasicallyhree. hefirstrises rom ratherimple bservation,namely, he factthat a one-line oem-at leastinWestern anguages-is willy-nilly t the same time a no-linepoem. This is a fact around which here s, Ithink, oroute fescape.Lines npoetryre nthis espectike exes ntheworldofbiology:youneed to have at least twoto make thewholequestion f sex ameaningfulne. Two wouldseemto be the owestcommondenominatorfwearegoing o speakof inesofverse t all; there recouplets nd there re parallel

18 Ibid. p. 192.


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200 MonumentaNipponica, xxviii:lines, utto speak of a 'one-line oem' sto speakofsomethinghat annot xist.This s thereasonwhy ne may till efer o Seidensticker'swo-line enderingsftanka nhis Genji ranslationss 'verse', utone oughtnotdo the ame forSato'sone-linersnthisnew nthology.hedifferenceetween ne and two nthismatteris immense. t is, ultimately,hedifferenceetween roseand poetry.One maydetect oetic elements'ncertain indsofproseand one oftenhas the impres-sion that ertain oems are terriblyrosy-a situation ot unlike heexistencenour world f feminine'men and masculine'women.Since the timewhen he rulesof strict rosodywere gradually elaxed,whathas cometo constitute line npoetrysnow,ofcourse, heway nwhichmarginsonpaper are handled.We recognize heexistencefmultipleineswhen hemar-gins re expanded n an unusualway. This s the common ruth n Lew Welch'sacceptance f theotherwise utrageous efinitionf a poemas 'languagewhichwhenwritten oes not reachfrommargin o margin.' his makes t possibleforus toclassifyhings ither s poetryras prosebut his s,ofcourse, o do nothingmorethan state he most basicrecognitionactor. t is to find n literatureurequivalent f thebasic biologicaldatumwhich nablesa physicianr a midwifeto readily tate he sexofthe newborn nfantnhis orher hands. Butthisbasicrecognitionactormaynotbe overlooked rdiscarded. ineation r the ackofit s the physical nd visualfactwhich onstitutes hat would call the recog-nizabilityhreshold' f verse.Theabove sconfirmed,think,yan experience elated y Stanley ish nhisessay,How to Recognize Poem WhenYou See One."9 Fishtellshow,whileteachingwo ummerourses ack-to-backomeyears go,he oneday completedhisearlier lass n inguisticsnd literaryriticismnd left hat lass'sassignment,a listofauthors o be read,on the blackboard. t read:

Jacobs-RosenbaumLevinThorneHayesOhmanHis second lass was oneengagednreading nglish eligious oetry fthe even-teenthenturyndquite ccustomedtthatpoint nthecourse o the mblematicverse fthat ra. Upon enteringhe lassroom t took ittle ffortor hese rainedinterpreterso discover n the blackboard 'poem' fullofreligious ymbols-includingecondite eferenceso Jacob's adder, hetribe fLevi,thecrownofthorns,hetheologicalmplicationsfthephraseOh Man ' and the ike.Onthebasis ofthisFishgoeson tomake ome mportant oints nhisongoingdebatewithHirsch,Abramsand others oncerningmatters f objectivitynd

'9 StanleyFish, Is Therea Text in ThisClass? The Authority f Interpretive om- munities, arvard U.P., 1980, pp. 322-37.


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LAFLEUR: Marginalia 201subjectivityn nterpretation.y point,however,s more pecificnd oneI wouldapply directlyo what was discussed bove. It is that the verypresence f theblackboard'smargins' roundFish's istof authorsmade tpossibleforhisclassto seeitas a structuredoem-somethinghatwouldnothave happenedf thadread as follows:Jacobs-RosenbaumLevin/Thorne/Hayes /Ohman.Whetherwe like it or not, ineationmakes for minimal ecognitionn the verse of themodernWest. t is also, incidentally,robablymuchofthe reasonwhyearlierWesternersn Japan,upon seeingunlineated anka and haiku on shikishi ndtanzaku ad some nitial ifficultynrecognizinghese s verse nd for ometimethought heymight e 'epigrams' r somethinglse other hanpoetry.Mysecondpointbuildson thefirst utalso recognizests imitations.t takesnoteofthe mportantact hat ny hreshold,lthough sine ua non orhabitablebuildings, ughtneverbe mistaken orthe nnerhouseitself. o too in poetry.Margins n a pagemaymake tpossible o detect poem there, ut they o notthemselvesmakeforthe kindof heightened peech'whichpoetrymustbe if tis to be somethingworthy f aesthetic ttention,hat activitywhich we call'appreciation',nd retentions somethingfcultural alue. Suchappreciation ill,ofcourse,depend uponmany hings: hythm,ropes, recisediction, reshnessofvision, conomy fexpression,ustainedmageryndthe ike-a largenumberofthingswhich annotpossibly e listed nd evaluatedhere.One ofthese peci-fically esthetic lements, owever,snoteworthyere nd it s, nterestingly,newhich s onlypossible na lineated orm. t is something hichderivesmmedi-ately rom hefact hatpoetrynmodern imes snot only omethingpokenbutalso somethinghat ppears nwrittenorm. t is the dramatic nd poeticeffectcausedby enjambmentr theintentional arry-overf partof a semantic ndsyntacticalnit from ne line of verseto thenext. Since its first ppearances(probablyn the seventeenthentury), njambment as been put to service ypoets o give mphasiso certainwords r certain rief hraseswithinmuchongersyntacticaltructures.t is, of course,not possiblewithout ntentionallye-terminedmarginsnd whatweusually all lineation'.

This is, to be specific, reciselywhatis wrong n Sato's decisionto followGeorge aintsburynthe atter's efinitionfa 'line'as thatwhich as a thinkableself-sufficiency'.uch a characterizationfthepoetic line'cannot ncompass heimportancef enjambmenturing hepast fewcenturiesn Westerniterature.Sato wouldhave beenmuchsafer fhe had followedBrooks and Warren'sde-finitionfa line as 'a unit f attention'npoetry2linceone of thevaluesof thisdefinitions that-precisely or esthetic easons-itpermits line to stopbeforeitssyntacticalreven ts thinkable' nd has beenreached, husgiving ither hispointor the point ofitsresumptionn the next ine an emphasis therwisem-20 CleanthBrooks & RobertPennWarren,Understanding oetry, Holt, Rinehart &Winston,3rd edition, 1960, p. 562. This is

also thedefinition f a 'line' adopted by the|Princeton ncyclopedia fPoetry ndPoetics,|PrincetonU.P., 1965, p. 450.


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202 MonumentaNipponica, xxviii:2possible. he unnatural' reak sin thiswaymadeemphatic, ramatic,ndpoeticas well.The attentionroken s also theattention aptured.A concrete llustration ayhelp.The poem I have selected s one by LadyIzumi,poemno. 763from heGoshuishfi.f romanized s a single ine, twouldbe: arazarankonoyo nohoka no omoide ni imahitotabino au koto moga na; Sato,p. 143, ranslatest as:

To remember ouin the nextworld,where will be soon, 'd liketo meetyou ustone moretimeThissame poemhas beenromanizednd translatedyEarl Miner s follows:21

Arazaran Soon to be no more-Konoyonohoka no How I wish had you bymeOmoideni Now, and if butonce,Ima hitotabi o That I might ake the memoryAu kotomo ga na Withme to the worldbeyond

Thepoem n Sato's renditions, n a word, rite nd provides o support or heopinionofmanythatLady Izumiwas probably he best Japanesepoet of theeleventh entury.utpartof Sato'sproblem ere, would rgue, erives romhefactthatwithhis renditionn one linehe has thrownwaymanyofthe bettertoolsfor inguisticndpoetic lexibilitynEnglish. tuck s he swithwhathe has,he is limited ntirelyo punctuationo givehimthepauses,structures,nd em-phasesthat goodtranslationfthispoemought o have.22He has no marginsto cope with, ut he also has none to playwith.And thisseriouslyrodes anypossibilityhat histranslation ill be able to approximatehe remarkablentel-lectual ndemotional ubtletyfLady zumi'soriginal. he results flatly rosaic.Miner's ranslation ere, t strikesme,worksverywell ndeed.He has takenadvantagenot onlyof a good rhythmicattern utalso of a sequenced ineationinorder o let thesophisticationf the magery nfold.He has rearrangedomeofthe elements fthe original ut has retainedtsdramatic nd emotional n-tensity-especiallyhroughnjambment.ne of the thingshatmakes his veryfine ranslations that Miner has captured heimportantole oftheword main the original tructurend hisgiven he word now', itsEnglish quivalent,certain rivilegedsolation etween margin nda comma tthebeginningfthepoem'sthird ine.This is a strategyhatwould be impossiblewithoutineationand is, incidentally,ne thathere makesfora more preciserenderingf theoriginal.

21 Earl Miner,An IntroductionoJapaneseCourtPoetry,StanfordU.P., 1968,p. 95.22 Sato sometimes mitspunctuationwithresults that may be quite misleading. Onp. 207, for nstance, famousversebySaigy6is renderedas follows: 'Under a willow bythe road where clear water flows, stood,thinking, ustfor a while.' Unless the reader

recognizesthat the upper-caseof the word'Just' beginsa quotation(thusrendering hequotational to of the original), the wholemeaningof the poem may be misconstrued.Watson's version of the same poem on p.173 is more lucid and much less likelytoconfuse.


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LAFLEUR: Marginalia 203The result s twoverydifferentoemsin English. ato's is a fairly anal ex-

pression f a wish o see a lover gain.Miner'sbecomes muchmoreprofoundreverie n boththeparadox ndthepassionencountered hen person egins ocontemplate is or her owndemise.Lady Izumi'sthoughtmoveseasilyfromprojected magining f this world without erselfn it to the more mmediaterecognitionhat hisworld, t leastpresentlyorher, s onewithouthepresenceofher over.The depth nd intensityf herpassionare expressedn the subtlesophisticationfthe movesmadebyher mind nd imagination:tandingnthepresentpointA), sheenvisions remote uturepointC), a pointwith espect owhich muchmoreproximateuturepointB) would have becomeno more hana memoryfthepast.The contemplationf suchmultiple oints nfutureimemakes hepresentvenmore mportantorherand thepoignance f her epara-tionfrom loverevenmore ntense.As is the case withmuchofthe Buddhist-influencedoetry fthisera,the more metaphysical'magining ffuture imesturnsn upon itself o make thepassionsofthepresentmore concrete nd im-mediate. t createswhat would call impassioned everie'. here re, n a word,subtly onnectedaminae na poemsuchas this nd a translatormust o renderit thatthe reader oo can progress hroughhese ayers t justtheright ace ofmind nd emotion. simplyannot magine hatSato's translationould do thisfor he commonreaderwho comes afresh o thispoemor has no accessto theoriginal. ndthis s due-not only nthis oembut nmany f Sato's tanka rans-lations n the anthology-toa misinformedesire to be true to the originalwithout aving ounted hecost of ettisoningoeticpossibilitiesntherecipientlanguage.My third rgumentgainstunilineatedor, really,non-lineated)ranslationsofthetanka s that t is erroneous o use thedeliberatexperimentsf modernpoets norder oworkbackwards o ascertainhe ntentionsf classicalones. nsayinghis wishmerelyosuggesthat atounfortunatelyeems o havewronglycarried omethingverfrom isearlier xperiences thetranslatorftwentieth-century oets ohismore ecent ne with lassicalforms. hat s,although ehasrightlyalled ourattentiono the fact hatpoets such as IshikawaTakuboku, nimitationfWestern oetsand their se oflinesofvaryingength,ntentionallydidthe same even whenwriting oemsofthirty-oneyllables, ato has goneonfrom hispoint o assume hat he olderpractice fnon-lineation as an equallyintentionalne. He assumes hat t was an implicit ormfor heclassicalpoetsand that this now oughteven become thenormforthose who translate hoseclassicalversesntomodernWesternanguages.Thesearelarge umps nreason-ingand involve number ffalse ssumptions.It isclear hatpoets specially uring urown entury ave aken ull dvantageof the fact that theirpoems often each the largest udiencefirstn a printedform. herefore,heyhave used thepossibilitiesnherentn intentionallyariedtypesettingor estheticffect.n ourowntime hese hings avebecomea partof therepertoirefpoetic echniquesvailable;one cannotreadily maginewhat


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204 MonumentaNipponica, xxviii:2the verseofWilliamCarlos Williams r e. e. cummings,or nstance,wouldbewithout hem.So too formodernJapanesepoets.As the Sato translation-bybeingrightlyiteral n this-visuallydemonstrates, iyazawa Kenji's celebrated'Spring ndAsura'skillfullynites ensewith hethings ypesettingan do withmarginso create certain ural-visual eauty:

I am Asura ncarnate(the andscape sways nmy ears)Shattered loudsto the imit fvisibilityin heaven's sea ofsplendorsacredcrystalline inds weepApril's row ofZypressenabsorbsether, lack,at its darkfeetthe snowridge fT'ien-shan litters(wavesof heat haze & whitepolarization)yet he True Words are losttheclouds,torn, ly hroughhesky.Ah below Aprilof brilliancegnashing, urning, ushingI amAsuraincarnate.... (p. 493)This clearly hows hatmodern oets,whetherWestern r Japanese, ave madethemarginsntopartof the meaning' ftheir oems.For a translatorf modernverse o ignore his would be a serious rror. t is to Sato's credit hat he hasrespected nd skillfullyendered hiswhenpresentinghe magnificentoems ofMiyazawaand eventhe tanka' of shikawawhen heseverses redeliberately-andunconventionally-lineated.To assume a similar ntentionalityn the practiceof the classical poets ofJapan s, however, imply nachronistic.he poets of earlier imes ad a differentrepertoiref techniques n verse, ome of which are reproduciblen modernEnglishwith some ease (assonance, alliteration,ertainkinds of engo,for n-stance), ome of which an be approximated nlythrough nusual skill on thepart of the translator kakekotoba, he conventionalmakurakotoba,llusivevariation, arataxis n some tanka and in many haiku),23 ome of whichwillprobably emain esthetically eaningless henrenderednto English syllable-count s a mode of measurement)r virtually nreproducibleprobablyhe two-directional arataxisrequired orrenga).These classicalpoetswould not havethought fmargins nd what mightbe done withthemas things f aestheticsignificancend value for heir rt.Likewise, or hosewho were ankapoets, hepractice fcomposingwithout ineationwas simply convention f ease; ithadneither ositivenor negative oetic mport. here werethings hat mattered o

23 On Ezra Pound's usage of haikai asthe catalystfor the evolutionof a new levelof parataxis in English verse,see the excel-lent discussion n Hugh Kenner, The PoundEra, Universityof California Press, 1971,pp. 180ff.


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LAFLEUR: Marginalia 205these oetsbut hiswas notone ofthem. o that xtenthenon-lineatedresenta-tion of thesequenceof a tanka's wordsmayhave been their ctualpractice, utit was not an artistic ormof their ractice s poets.Thus,there s no needtohold that t mustbecomeone of our normswhenwerender heir erses ntoourownmodernanguages. ato,I am afraid, as conjured p as aestheticallyigni-ficant omething hichprobablyhad no such role in theoriginal, amely, heincidental on-lineationf the classicaltanka. On theotherhand,he has runroughshod ver somethinghat does have poetic significancen the recipientliterature,amely,hevisually mportant,aried, nd aestheticallyaluablewayin whichwords an be related omarginsnbooksofverse hat recontemporary(somethingwhichevery ranslationn our own timemusttry o be even if ithappens o be thetranslationf an ancient orm).In whatmostprobablys the mostcogent nd eloquentdefense f the trans-lator'sart n modern imes,GeorgeSteiner as celebrated he intellectual hal-lengeof translation,specially ince t is somethingminentlynvolved n theinterchangeetween pasthistorical ra and ourown. He writes:The sourceanguagend the anguagefthe ranslatorre n dualmotion,elativeto themselvesndtoeachother. heresnounwobblingivotn time rom hichunderstandingouldbeviewed s stable nd definitive.24To this wouldonly dd thatwhat strue fthe wo anguages nvolved sequallytrueof the two iteratures.hat from he donorculturemust, hrough hetrans-lator's rt, nter s much s possible ntothe iterary orms,modes,and poten-tialities f therecipientne. It is one ofthespecialpleasures fFrom heCountryof Eight slands that its diction s distinctivelyontemporary,npadded, nddirect.As such tfitswonderfullyntowhatwe expect fgoodverse n our owntime. t is merely omewhat nfortunatehat thisgood choiceof dictionwasnotalwaysmatched yequallygoodchoiceswith egard o poetic echnique.

24 George Steiner,AfterBabel: Aspectsof p. 249.Languageand Translation,xfordU.P., 1975,

The Expanse and the Limits of a New Anthology

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