Kakekotoba - Examples

Examples

Kokin Wakashū 571 Love 2

Koishiki ni

wabite tamashii

madoinaba

munashiki kara no

na ni ya nokoramu

If in despair of love

my soul should wander,

am I to be remembered

as one who left

(a corpse) in vain?

-Anonymous

This poem from the Kokin Wakashū makes a pun that is translated explicitly in the English version. Kara, here used as an auxiliary particle of causation, can also mean "empty shell" or "corpse" (since the implied narrator's soul has left his body). Spelling this out in translation is the only way to express the pun to an English reader, but doing so destroys the subtlety that makes the original so poignant

Kokin Wakashū 639 {From a poetry contest/utaawase}

Akenu tote

kaeru michi ni wa

kokitarete

ame mo namida mo

furisohochitsutsu

Dawn has come-

on the path home from love

I am drenched:

rainfall swelling

my falling tears

-Fujiwara no Toshiyuki

Although the mix-up of tears and rain is a bit trite in Japanese poetry, Toshiyuki creates a new beauty from old fragments through the unusual verb "kokitarete" (drenched) and the kakekotoba on "furisohochi" (meaning both "to fall" and "to soak through"). The kakekotoba is just one way through which poets are able to make unique and beautiful works of art despite working with a rather limited set of acceptable forms, styles, and references

Chikuba Kyoginshu 227-228 Miscellaneous

Shukke no soba ni

netaru nyoubou

Henjou ni

kakusu Komachi ga

utamakura

Beside the monk

lies a lady

Hidden from Henjou

is Komachi's

poem-pillow.

-Unknown

Though from a much later period (15th century), this poem utilizes a multi-layered play on the literary term utamakura ("poem-pillow"). An utamakura is a place-name that is described with set words and associated constantly with the same scenery, season, time of day, etc...; poets often kept notes of their favorite tropes of this sort. Two of the Six Poetic Immortals of the Kokin Wakashū era were the Priest Henjou and Ono no Komachi, who were reputed to be romantically involved despite their competition. The literary term utamakura is here being used for one of its literal constitutive words, "pillow," to imply that Henjou and Komachi were sleeping together. The poem is also referencing similar scenes in the Gosenshu and Yamato Monogatari. Kakekotoba, as this poem shows, are often humorous displays of the writer's wit.