Love Triange, Part Two: Manyoshu Book One, Poem 21

A while back I wrote about a famous poem in the Manyoshu anthology by Princess Nukata addressed to her ex-husband Prince Oama (later Emperor Tenmu). It seems that the story of this forbidden encounter in a field of grass did not end there, because Prince Oama replied back…

Manyogana	Japanese	Romanization	Rough Translation1
紫草能	紫草の	Murasaki no	How could I possibly
尓保敝類妹乎	にほへる妹を	Nioeru imo o	be bitter to one so lovely
尓苦久有者	憎くあらば	Niku araba	as gromwell grass,
人嬬故尓	人妻ゆゑに	Hitozuma yue ni	when even as someone’s wife
吾戀目八方	我恋ひめやも	Are koi me ya mo	I harbor feelings for you?

Before we discuss the poet and the context, I wanted to briefly explain the plant described: murasaki (紫草). I had some trouble finding information on this plant, but it seems to be the species Lithospermum erythrorhizon which in English has a variety of names: purple gromwell, red stoneroot, red gromwell, etc.

Princess Nukata was Prince Oama’s ex-wife, but had remarried his older brother, Emperor Tenji (poem 1 in the Hyakunin Isshu), while the emperor had compelled Prince Oama to marry his own niece (Tenji’s daughter) Princess Unononosasara to strengthen the family line. Relations in the family were complicated. Later after Emperor Tenji died, Prince Oama went to war against Tenji’s son, and overthrew him to become Emperor Tenmu. Game of Thrones, Japanese ediiton.

Yet what makes this exchange of poems surprising is that both Princess Nukata’s poem, and Prince Oama’s were recited not in secret, but at a big public banquet in front of Emperor Tenji.

So, what’s going on here? Are they professing their love in defiance of the Emperor?

Well … no. My book on the Manyoshu strongly suggests that given the circumstances these poems were likely recited in jest. Maybe they did still have lingering feelings for one another, but the poems were not meant to reflect real life; they were meant to paint a beautiful, but surreal scene. The imagery is fantastic, and a testament to their poetic skills, but the scene described likely did not happen. This is not unusual with the poetry we’ve seen thus far on the blog: many poems paint idealistic scenes that might be based on real life, but didn’t necessarily happen.

Then again…. what if they recited their poems in jest in order to hide true feelings after all?

One can’t help but wonder…. 🤔