bedded in an old peasant ethos. While the regular folksong or dodoitsu has an arrangement of syllables distinct from the literary forms of tanka and haiku, it is basically similar in form to the literary type, being a brief series of syllables arranged in a set pattern of fives and sevens. This is in contrast to the great difference in form of the English ballad and folksong on the one hand and literary forms such as the sonnet and ode, on the other. In Japan not only are both folk and literary poetry characterized by five- and seven-syllable unrhymed lines, each poem being as a rule less than half a dozen lines in length, but both employ much the same devices of pivot words and assonance for their effects. There are also certain similarities in content. Personification of nature is lacking and meanings are suggested rather than named. One sharp contrast does exist, however, as far as content is concerned: while the literary poetry is largely concerned with sentimental suggestions of love and the changing seasons, much of the folk poetry is concerned with the primary desires of food, drink, and sex. The court poet and more recently the city litterateur have both looked upon the peasant as a quaint individual of no great importance and have concerned themselves largely with the expression of delicate introspections in a limited poetic form, never realizing that the fundamentals of their form derive from the broad and earthy songs of the peasantry.[1]
IV. Sources and Acknowledgements
The literary forms of tanka and haiku have been well studied by Occidentals, but almost no one has taken the pains to learn anything about the songs of the folk. Two men who have made collections are Georges Bonneau and Lafcadio Hearn. Bonneau, for many years a resident of Japan, has devoted much of his time to a collection of dodoitsu from various parts of the country, and has published his texts with French translations.[2] Hearns’s work was less methodical, being incidental to his general writings about the country, and he frequently gives English versions of the songs without any original Japanese text.[3]
- ↑ More detail on the characteristics of Japanese poetry may be found in Primitive and Mediaeval Japanese Texts by F. V. Dickens (text, translation and commentary on the Manyōshū).
- ↑ Georges Bonneau, L’expression poétique dans le folklore japonais, 3 vols. (Referred to hereafter as Folklore japonais.) This work includes versions of Songs 41, 43, 65, 89, and 108 of Kuma. See also Bonneau’s Anthologie de la poésie japonaise and his Le probleme de la poésie japonaise.
- ↑ His translations and comments may be found in a number of different essays, the most important of which are in the volumes Gleanings in Buddha Fields, In Ghostly Japan, Shadowings, and A Japanese Miscellany. In 1914 most of these songs were brought together in a single posthumous volume, Japanese Lyrics. Variations of Songs 7, 26, 33, 103, and 108 have been recorded in one or another of these works.
