Mori Ogai (1862-1922) and His Kanshi: Allusion and Diction

The extant corpus of kanshi (poems written only in Chinese characters) by Mori Ogai numbers nearly 240. The poetry is here discussed in terms of “allusion” and “diction” (with an appendix that treats history as reflected in the kanshi). Allusion Questions of allusion go to the heart of what a writer is saying and to appreciating how it is being said. The use (or non-use) of allusion in Chinese and Sino-Japanese poses several questions. Has an author read the work one finds cited in the commentaries to his writing? And if so, how can one be sure he is consciously alluding to it? Most important, if the use of an allusion is intentional (or at least likely), what role is the allusion fulfilling? Is it used to confirm an earlier formulation, to find support and prestige for a current stance, to display learning, to add a twist to a familiar (or not-so-familiar) turn of phrase, to be ironic, or for what combination of these? The use of allusion in the kanshi of Mori Ogai is here treated “inductively” by identifying (A) passages where the writers of classical Chinese and Sino-Japanese are specifically named, (B) locutions in the corpus that are incomprehensible without reference to earlier classical-Chinese sources, (C) passages that in all likelihood draw on such sources, and (D) specific parallels with earlier kambun writing that have been noted by Ogai’s commentators. Allusion presents special difficulties when translating or explicating a passage, as illustrated here by an example. Diction The closely related topic of diction is also discussed. In kanshi predating Mori Ogai’s arrival in Europe, many of which deal with historical sites or themes, references are repeatedly made to the fog, mist, vapor, etc., that shroud the subject – a stance likely carried over in Ōgai’s later shiden (historical biographies). Ogai’s penchant for difficult kanji, especially when he was young, was pronounced. Examples are cited of his use of (A) less-com¬mon variants of Chinese characters, (B) rare characters, and (C) well-known characters with less-common meanings. In his later years Ōgai tended to use such “fancy language” less frequently (and only as appropriate), here illustrated by an example. Several instances of the “translation” of the contemporary material world into kanji are also noted. So too are Chinese characters used in more exclusively “Japanese” senses – important for understanding the nature and role of kambun (Sino-Japanese). Ogai’s training in kanbun was central to the success of his other writing. It not only helped him to write the tour de force of kanji expresson, the florid but masterful prose of Sokkyo shijin (his translation/adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s novel, The Impromptu Poet – arguably Ogai’s most “creative” work), but also the pithiness and rhythmical quality of Goethe, in the unaffected and limpidly clear Japanese of his Faust translation.