Sanjo no Udaijin

Here is our fifth print this year, Fujiwara no Sadakata, father of Gon-Chunagon no Asatada, whose print I made a couple of years ago. He's also the cousin of another one of the Hyaku-nin Isshu poets, and being a Fujiwara, I suppose he's related in some way or another to a lot more of them ...

This poem is one of those that is next-to-impossible to translate into another language. Although most of the word play and double entendre of all Japanese poetry of this era is lost somewhat in translation, some poems are just so crammed full of 'extra' meaning that there is basically nothing left to translate. In the words of one commentator, this poet has tied his puzzle so intricately that we may never find all its turns. This makes me wonder about how much of this depth was appreciated by the listeners of the day. If a poem is written in such a complicated fashion that even now, hundreds of years later, people are still digging for meanings, how could it possibly have been comprehended on first hearing?

But I have to keep in mind that people back in those days (at least this class of people) were very different from modern people. I think they were probably extremely narrow-minded, totally wrapped up in their world of strict social rules and formalities, and completely ignorant of the outer 'real' world. But although their world may indeed have been narrow, I suppose it was in places very very deep. Dress codes, patterns of speech, incense, rituals of all types, poetry; all these carried levels of meaning of which we will remain ignorant forever.

As an 'average' man of the 20th century, raised in a highly egalitarian society like Canada, my image of this 'aristocratic' class is a mixed one. On one hand, I have to confess that I see them as useless people, living on the labour of others. Thousands of farmers and artisans must have worked their entire life in virtual slavery simply to support this 'elite' group. Yet it cannot be denied that the upper class too played a useful role in society. They were instrumental in the development of the written language, through their literary activities and their interest in Chinese culture. Architecture, moral and legal codes, cuisine, dress; in all these fields and many more the influence of their activities was wide, and is still felt now. So I suppose I shouldn't worry too much about the injustice done to the poor peasants of those bygone days, and just be glad that nowadays we have built a society in which class is no longer so important, and in which people of all types can make a comfortable life for themselves.

Even those of us engaged in such basically non-productive activities as traditional woodblock printmaking ...

July 1993

Translation - William Porter, 1909