A Favorite Tanka

  "spring is a perhaps hand"  E.E. Cummings

My concern for the current situation in the world makes me wonder if cooler heads will persist over the irrationality of present-day leaders who believe that only combative confrontation is the solution. The above line from a Cummings poem makes me believe that the winds of change do blow in many directions.

It also brings to mind the great tanka by Shinkei translated by Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen in her definitive study of this important fifteenth-century Japanese monk whom many call the "father of renga" or modern-day renku. Ramirez-Christensen's book, Heart's Flower: The Life and Poetry of Shinkei, is an impressive analysis of the work of this Japanese poet. The following tanka, written in 1471, illustrates an important aspect of life in Japan at the time, but reflects the depredation of war as its primary image, something that is present in our minds today.

blowing winds of storm
in a world bent only on
tearing itself apart . . .
where is there found a single
stirring flower of truth

This is one of my favorite tanka at the moment for many reasons: it reverberates with the impending disaster of world disorder that a war against Iraq, Iran, or possibly North Korea could bring. It also brings to light the importance of nature, in this case, a flower, in how we destroy our environment. Here in the flower is a sign, perhaps, of rebirth and a reawakening. The metaphor of the moral considering reflected in the "stirring flower of truth" displays the importance of this image in contrast to what would happen after war and the devastation of human life and property. It makes us wonder about our place in a universe beset by turmoil and strife.

After World War II, many writers documented their feelings of alienation. People had no control over their environment and felt lost, devastated, and without hope. After September 11, many people similarly felt that the forces of evil were again threatening our existence.

The question of the search returns not as a plight of hopelessness, but with the perseverance that a stirring flower can change the direction of a storm or, for that matter, humanity. We bear witness that a single flower can rearrange our deepest convictions. This realistic concept of nature is sustained in the belief that to wrench a flower from its stem, and in turn its roots, is to take the very truth of our existence from us. Many poets stand together in condemnation of war. This may be because of our religious beliefs, or a pragmatic understanding of and basic disagreement with outside forces that we cannot control, but oppose. However, we cannot be denied our right to believe that our words can enhance the storm and move it against the forces of evil.

~ Raffael de Gruttola

Tanka translation quoted from Ramirez-Christensen, Esperanza. Heart's Flower: The Life and Poetry of Shinkei, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1994 (translation modified in two lines by Raffael de Gruttola.)

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