Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyo

by Saigyō, William R. LaFleur (Translator)

Awesome The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyo captures the power of Saigyo's poetry and this previously overlooked poet's keen insight into the social and political world of medieval Japan. It also offers a fascinating look into the world of Japanese Buddhism prior to the wholesale influence of Zen.

Genres: Poetry, Japanese Literature, Japan, Biography, Asia, Buddhism

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2003

About the author

Saigyō Houshi (西行 法師, 1119 – March 23, 1190) was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period.

Born Satou Norikiyo (佐藤 義清) in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the Age of Mappō (1052), Buddhism was considered to be in decline and no longer as effective a means of salvation. These cultural shifts during his lifetime led to a sense of melancholy in his poetry. As a youth, he worked as a guard to retired Emperor Toba, but in 1140 at age 22, for reasons now unknown, he quit worldly life to become a monk, taking the religious name En'i (円位). He later took the pen name, "Saigyo" meaning Western Journey, a reference to Amida Buddha and the Western paradise. He lived alone for long periods in his life in Saga, Mt Koya, Mt Yoshino, Ise, and many other places, but he is more known for the many long, poetic journeys he took to Northern Honshuu that would later inspire Basho in his Narrow Road to the Interior. He was a good friend of Fujiwara no Teika. Some main collections of Saigyo's work are in the Sankashuu, Shin Kokin Wakashuu, and Shika Wakashū. He died in Hirokawa Temple in Kawachi Province (present-day Osaka Prefecture) at age 72.

Reviews

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like anyone remotely interested in Japanese literature, I am a huge fan of the author's book The Karma of Words. I recently noticed he had re-published his older book about poet Saigyo. The book is divided into two parts, the biography and the poems. In the biography he does not exclusively use his own translations. Both sections are fantastic! Translations in the back are excellent and the biography was also eye-opening. I especially loved the deep dive into Saigo and the times--both the turbulent "end of days" feeling of those worn-torn years as well as the transformation in Japanese Buddhism. Specifically, in the way Shinto kami were being incorporated into the Buddhist worldview (honji-suijaku) in a very sophisticated way, as displayed in the poems themselves. That was fascinating.

Glad I finally got to read this volume!

[Mike Degen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There would’ve been a time in my life this hit a lot harder because it’s kind of tough I mean the dude lived on the side of a mountain by himself

He loved the moon though

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting essay on Saigyo giving important context for the poetry that follows.

[Jim Elkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this because Saigyo is traditionally considered the principal model for Basho. But sadly, the book has crippling flaws. There is a long biographical introduction, which does not solve problems of interpretation. For example there is this lovely poem:[return][return]My body will somewhere fall[return]by the wayside into a state of[return]sleep and more sleep --[return]like the dew that each night appears,[return]then falls from roadside grasses.[return][return]This stands out among dozens of others because of the specificity of its simile. But that specificity may be an illusion, brought to the poem by my Western reading habits: I see it as more particular than tropes in other poems, because I picture the leaves of grass bending slightly, and the drops drooping, and I think of those as figures for exhaustion, made poignant by the lightness of drops of water. But perhaps I'm only supposed to be thinking of the raindrops' ephemerality and anonymity.[return][return]Another example, said to be Saigyo's most famous poem:[return][return]I thought I was free[return]of passions, so this melancholy[return]comes as a surprise:[return]a woodcock shoots up from marsh[return]where autumn's twilight falls.[return][return]The translation permits two readings: in one, the melancholy is what's figured by the image of the woodcock and the marsh, and together they comprise the writer's mood; in the other, surprise is what is figured, and melancholy is previous and unexplained. The gloss doesn't discuss this, and introduces a completely different idea:[return][return]"What happens in the scene of the darkening marsh is is reflected in the person of the poet, someone in whom, fortunately, long and arduous practice had not taken away the capacity to respond emotionally to a sudden manifestation of beauty." (p. 68)[return][return]I can't understand this, or how the author, William LaFleur, could think it is an adequate interpretation. If it is right, then the woodcock in the autumn marsh means only beauty, and neither surprise nor melancholy play any determinate part.[return][return]Perhaps I'm thinking too much like William Empson, but unless I can understand the basic ground rules of interpretation, it doesn't help to be told Saiygo sounds "medieval" in comparison to Basho, and it certainly doesn't help to be given a long biography of the poet. For all I know, I'm reading into translations that themselves read into, or even past, the poet.[return][return]And "Awesome Nightfall," as a title, does not do anything for my confidence in these translations. It's such a stupid title that my wife made fun of me every time she saw the cover. It sounds like a teenager's reaction to a sunset.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great bio on Saigyo with quite a number of his wonderful waka.