Larks soar in the sky,
Sun is shining serenely,
On this warm spring day.
Yet I feel melancholy,
As I chew on my loneness...
(Vol.19-4292)

“Larks soaring in the sky” is a description of a peaceful and merry sign of spring time, familiar from the old days. Actually, there is an old term “Age Hibari” or “Soaring Larks”　describing larks soaring vertically from their nest up right to the sky.

Quite co-incidentally, as a side track, I happened about 10 years ago to make a Tanka about the soaring larks, when I walked in an open field, quite large, adjacent to Yoshinogari Ruins in Saga Pref. on one weekend just on my own.

At that time I was involved in running a shipyard company in Sasebo City, near Saga, and I would make an excursion to hills and fields and seaside just on my own, to “get away from it all ” sometimes, trying to chill out a bit from the harsh and real world of business.

Yoshinogari is a ruins spot, a large open area, with remains of the ancient and primitive culture from Yayoi Age (5th century BC ~ 3rd century AD).　It was something like an oasis to me. ?

The Tanka poem I made off-hand as I walked around read as follows:
佐賀の野原　　　　 Saga-no nohara
　小さき鳥ども　　　　 Chisaki toridomo
　　はしゃぎおり 　　　　 Hashagiori
ひばりヘリなら　　　　 Hibari Heli nara 　　　　　
　すずめ　UFO か 　　　　 Suzume UFO ka

　　　　　(艘影　ca.2012 於　吉野ヶ里）

At Saga’s grass field,
Birds abound and make many tweets,
Flying high and low.
Larks are soaring like copters, Sparrows swish like U-F-O’s.

Would one find perhaps some common description about larks’ way of flying between a 7th century poet and a 21st century businessman/dilettante?

Back to the main topic -
In the above AT for Yakamochi’s poem, I said “loneness” instead of the ordinary “loneliness”. The reason is I wanted to guess and describe his state of mind as an objective and introspective “being on my own” instead of a subjective and emotional  “feeling lonely” duplicating the subsequent  “feeling melancholy”.
―――
◎◎◎

● BILOG“MAN-YOH-SHUH”topに戻る