Help with translation of a kyoka by Ota Nanpo

[Khanh Trinh]

Dear List-members,

A happy New Year to you all! May this year of the Ox bring more stability and freedom of movement than the last.

For a catalogue entry, I have tried unsuccessfully to translate a kyoka by Ota Nanpo inscribed on the upper part of a hanging scroll by Utamaro, which is a stylish parody of the Akutagawa episode in the Tales of Ise.

The poem reads:
畑中に
におはくろつけて
たちたるは
鬼一口に
くはるへらなり

Are there any Kyoka-specialist out there who could help with a translation?

Your kind advice is much appreciated.

Best wishes,
Khanh Trinh (Museum Rietberg Zurich)

[Khanh Trinh]

Dear colleagues,

I have forgotten to attach the image of Utamaro’s painting yesterday when I sent out my request.

It was late, sorry for that.

Here it is. It’s a nikuhitsu, very finely painted and on silk, pretty much a straightforward pictorialization of the Akutagawa chapter. 

A colleague has pointed out that there might be a mistake in the transcription, the second line should read 

おはくろつけて

without the に at the beginning. That would exclude anything that has to do with にお.

Apparently, 鬼一口 is a quote from the prose part of the Akutagawa chapter, not from the poem. This is the part in which the lady abducted by ’the man’ (Narihira) was swallowed in one gulp by a demon during the night. 

Thank you all who have already come up with suggestion for translations. It is so interesting to see how many possibilities there are for a translation. 

All best wishes,

Khanh

On 6 Jan 2021, at 18:24, Leah Justin-Jinich <ljusti...@g.harvard.edu> wrote:

Hello,

Okay, so I'm still working on the poem, but I just wanted to point out that the poem seems to play with farming words and growing and harvesting rice. 

A へら is the flat, metal part of a spade or plow, which I believe is being compared to the teeth of a demon here. 

くろつけ likely refers to くろぬり, which is shoring up the ridge of a rice field with a spade (with, it seems, a flat blade) with mud to collect the water, which happens in the spring (see this illuminating post: https://www.yaginouen.com/post/%E6%98%A5%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%A7%E4%BA%8B%E3%81%AA%E4%BD%9C%E6%A5%AD%E3%80%8C%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8D%E3%81%AC%E3%82%8A%E3%80%8D)

A にお is a circular stack of rice straw (like a straw bale), but this is a seasonal word for fall, not spring. Perhaps Nanpo didn't know that much about rice farming, and carelessly combined farming words? 

Again, this is very rough and probably there are many points that are mistaken, but--in a non-poetic, non-5/7/5/7/7 translation, I think what the poem is saying is the following: 

it was by the plow’s teeth of the demon
that the one who put mud on the rice bales
in the fields and left, was devoured in one bite.

I don't see any connection to the Akutagawa poem. 

One thing that might be worth looking into is seeing if this poem appears elsewhere. By my observation, Nanpo seems to use certain poems for certain painting themes, and they are often ones he's already written and published elsewhere. The Ōta Nanpo zenshū might give a clue to the origin of this poem. 

Could we see the painting, please? That might help a bit. 

I'll see if I can refine a bit, but I welcome any corrections to my initial musings or thoughts from the rest of the community.

Best wishes,

Leah Justin-Jinich (She/her/hers)
PhD Candidate
Department of East Asian
Languages and Civilizations 
Harvard University

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[Leah Justin-Jinich]

Hello,

My initial thoughts are definitely, I believe, mistaken, so I have taken the liberty of removing them! Thank you to the colleague who pointed out some errors via private message.

Best wishes,

Leah Justin-Jinich (She/her/hers)
PhD Candidate
Department of East Asian
Languages and Civilizations 
Harvard University

[Xia-Kang Ziyi]

Dear Khanh,

I have not got the whole poem worked out but I would like to put in my two cents.

My modern rendition of the poem would be

畑中に

お白露つけて

(*)らちたるは

鬼一口に

食わるべらなり

The お白露(はくろ) and 鬼一口に食わる are clear references to the Akutagawa story.

(*) This is the only line I could not decipher. I also have a slight disagreement with the original transcription. The kana appears ら to me rather than た. Unfortunately, I cannot substantiate my reading because I could not find a satisfactory explanation for either らちたる or たちたる.

Hopefully this will point you in the right direction.

Best wishes,

Xia-Kang Ziyi

DPhil in Oriental Studies

University of Oxford