07 July 2026 - Blog Entry
I am currently reading "Hojoki" (An Account of My Hut) by Kamo no Chomei who was a 13th century Japanese author and poet. Chomei took up Buddhist vows and turned his back on society becoming a recluse. I strongly relate to this feeling and have expressed it to those around me, namely, becoming a recluse not necessarily the Buddhist vows. I see a lot of my thinking and way of writing in this work (the copy I am reading was translated by Matthew Stavros). I am not comparing myself to Chomei as a person but rather his style of writing (no doubt aided by Stavros' translation). It is a short enough read but I am taking it in a small bit at a time so I can think on what has been written. Oddly, it reads more as a journal than a philosophical work. As with anything I am trying hard not to read too much into the mundane as being profound but I do find the accounts of nearly one thousand years ago to mirror our current society.
Apparently, Chomei wrote several poems in what is known as "waka" poetry. There were many forms of waka and it is a pattern of 5 and 7 syllable lines. Each form has its own pattern based on the same lengths. Waka (the most common form is tanka) in the form I like is, well, the most common and focuses on themes about nature, love, and spirituality and its syllabic pattern is: 5-7-5-7-7. I don't think this was a rule, but in my very cursory research, it seems that the five syllable lines are one length of characters and the seven syllable lines are of another length, for example:
012345
01234567
012345
01234567
01234567
and I think this makes sense because this structure has an aesthetic about it. I took some time today to craft a waka poem and since the line length structure I gave an example of doesn't fit well with English words (the length of the word does not mean or imply its syllabic count) I thought that a typewriter and its ability to use half-spaces (something that is not available with a monospace font on a computer) would suit this kind of poetry well. Anyway, here is my attempt at waka (tanka):
Though summer wind blows
Warmly across the canals
I take no comfort
For my mind has grown so cold
Since the one I loved is gone
I think that the overall visual effect works though the spacing is a bit distracting. Apparently, the tanka should be an entire sentence from start to finish which I found to be a bit tricky. As soon as I am done reading Hojoki I will take some time to write more about it.