Winds of Gold—A Hundred Views of Saihoji Vol. 22

In this series of essays on Saihoji the renowned translator of Japanese poetry and poet Peter MacMillan records his impressions of and reflections on his visits to the garden throughout the four seasons. We hope that through these essays you the readers and fans of Saihoji can feel as if you are also present in the magical garden even when you cannot visit us.

The Song of the Bush Warbler

Sometimes visitors to Saihoji are so taken up with the beauty of the garden that they don’t pause to listen to the birdsong which is such a wonderful part of experience of visiting Saihoji. Many birds visit throughout the year and one of my favorite birds is the Japanese bush warbler, known in Japanese as uguisu. It is a very cute bird about the size of a robin with tiny olive brown feathers above and greyish feathers below, but as it always hides itself, it is more often heard than seen. Every spring its beautiful song can be heard throughout most of Japan.

Though this name is no longer commonly used, in the old days the song of the bush warbler was so lovely that it was known in English as the Japanese nightingale, because the European nightingale is famous for its beautiful song. However, the Japanese bush warbler does not sing at night as the European nightingale does.

There are countless poems about the bird in Japanese classical poetry dating from the Man’yōshū which was compiled 1,200 years ago, and Kokin Wakashū, a 1,000 year old collection. Since ancient times the arrival of the bush warbler was known as the harbinger of spring. As such it was one of the fixed topics for seasonal poems on spring in waka poetry, renga and haiku. It was thought to only sing in spring, so it did not appear as a motif in summer poems. But actually, it sings until late summer. In poetry the bush warbler is often associated with the plum blossom, which blooms in early spring, and it appears with plum on Japanese hanafuda or flower playing cards. However, the distinctive song is not usually heard until later in spring, after the plum blossoms have faded.

Every year one comes to my garden, too, and makes its appearance from early February to mid-February but last year the winter was quite cold, and I first heard it on the first of March. When it comes every spring my heart leaps with joy, and when I notice that I no longer hear him, I am sad till he returns. When I hear the bush warbler sing at Saihoji it makes me feel as if it is a home away from home.

The following poem from the oldest extant Japanese poetry collection, the Man’yōshū epitomizes the way in which the Japanese have treasured the song of the bush warbler as a harbinger of spring for over a thousand years:

Winter goes into retreat,
as the spring comes on
and in the mountains
and the fields
bush warblers sing.

When you hear their song, remember that the singers are the actual descendants of bush warblers from Nara and Kyoto that have been celebrated in poems for over one thousand years, and their ancestors never failed to sing even when the garden was abandoned by humans. Saihoji is thus not only ours, but also theirs too! And that is true not only for the birds with beautiful singing voices but for all living things on our planet, so let’s learn from the birdsong of Saihoji the love of all living beings on the planet, animals, birds insects, and—even though sometimes the most difficult to love—even humans, too.

Peter MacMillan

Peter MacMillan is a prize-winning translator, scholar, poet, and President of The Moon is a Boat Co., Ltd.

His translation, One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each (Hyakunin Isshu), was published in 2008, winning prizes in both Japan and the United States. After that, he completed an English translation of The Tales of Ise (Ise Monogatari), which was published by Penguin in 2016. He has also published a collection of poetry entitled Admiring Fields.

Awards:
Recipient of the Donald Keene Center Special Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature
Recipient of the 44th Special Cultural Translation Prize from the Japan Society of Translators Nominated for the PEN Award for Poetry Translation for the English translation of The Tale of Ise (Ise no Monogatari)