In the world of men it came to be a time of warfare. Throughout the country -- west, east, north, and south -- there was no place where the war was not being fought. The count of those dying because of it climbed continually and reached an enormous number. It was beyond belief! And for what on earth was this struggle taking place? A most tragic state of affairs
There's no gap or break
In the rank of those marching
Under the hill:
An endless line of dying men,
Moving on and on and on ...
Saigyo Hoshi
Commentary: This lengthy and sociopolitically conscious prefatory note establishes the thematic and emotive context of the poem while the tanka visually enhances the tone and mood. Saigyo's use of repetition in the last line adds extra emotional weight and psychological depth to the poem. "The irony is that we learn more about the times from this monk-poet who intentionally put distance between himself and what he called the ‘world’ than we do from the poetry of his contemporaries who went on living in the midst of the national capital, writing verses on set themes as if their society were not, in fact, falling apart” (William R. LaFleur, Mirror for the Moon : A Selection of Poems by Saigyo, p. xiv)
-- -- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Joshi (Prefatory Note) as a Poetic Device"
Sometimes (even as far back as the Manyoshu) ” [joshi (the prefatory note)] was developed into an extended prose passage” (Keene, p.84). Saigyo is well known for his “sometimes lengthy and often personal” prefatory notes, which “include poignant reflections on the madness that Saigyo saw surfacing in public life" (LaFleur, p. xiv) -- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Joshi (Prefatory Note) as a Poetic Device," accessed at https://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2014/12/to-lighthouse-joshi-preface-prefatory.html
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