What's that poem on "Slit of Cloud"?

October 18, 2007 10:54 AM

Can anyone help me locate the poem that is read on By Akira Sakata on the DJ Krush album Jaku? (The track name is "Slit of Cloud")

I think it is an Okinawan poem, but I'm not sure. I'd just like to see the words, but I don't have the CD, much less any liner notes.

posted by bashos_frog to media & arts (6 comments total)

Wow, I'd love to hear this -- is there a link somewhere to check it out?
posted by zenpop at 11:14 AM on October 18, 2007

There's a preview and iTunes (etc.) links here.

(Or you could email me - see my profile.)
posted by bashos_frog at 11:33 AM on October 18, 2007

A couple of live reports say that Sakata claims it comes from the Manyoshu, but it isn't familiar to me. Maybe I could help if I heard more of the song (e-mail in profile).
posted by No-sword at 4:59 PM on October 18, 2007

Turns out that Sakata recites two poems in this piece (and neither are from the Manyoshu!). The first is from the Kojiki:

八雲立つ 出雲八重垣 妻籠みに 八重垣作る その八重垣を

Yakumo tatsu/ Izumo yae-gaki/ tsuma-gomi ni/ yae-gaki tsukuru/ sono yae-gaki o

Izumo, where the clouds rise in an eightfold fence: they make an eightfold fence to keep my wife in -- ah, that eightfold fence.

Because it's the first poem in the Kojiki, tradition has it that it was the first Japanese poem, period. No comment from me on that.

(It sounds like Sakata might be saying "Izu mono wa" instead of "Izumo", which would make the first part "What emerges from the rising clouds is an eightfold fence", but I'm not familiar with that as a variation.)

The second is from the Shin kokin waka shu, and it's by Fujiwara no Teika (who was one of the editors of that collection):

見渡せば 花も紅葉も なかりけり 浦のとまやの 秋の夕ぐれ

Miwataseba/ hana mo momiji mo/ nakarikeri/ ura no tomaya no/ aki no yuugure

I look out [at the scenery], but find neither flowers nor crimson leaves. An autumn evening in my hut on the shore.

This tanka is considered a masterpiece; it's one of the "three evening poems" (三夕の和歌), three great poems in the SKWS that end in "aki no yuugure" (autumn evening).
posted by No-sword at 6:21 AM on October 22, 2007

It sounds like Sakata might be saying "Izu mono wa" instead of "Izumo" -- Wait, he'd have to be saying "Izuru mono wa" for that to make grammatical sense. Maybe he just pronounces the "mo" in "Izumo" very unusually.
posted by No-sword at 6:30 AM on October 22, 2007

On listening again, it does kind of seem like Izuru, with the 'ru' almost unvoiced. But I can't hear the 'wa' (は) at all.
posted by bashos_frog at 9:24 AM on October 22, 2007