Ushikai ga

牛飼が/歌よむ時に/世の中の
　　　新しき歌/大いにおこる
(伊藤左千夫 1864-1913)

ushikai ga / uta yomu toki ni / yo no naka no
　　　atarashiki uta / ooi ni okoru
(Ito Sachio 1864-1913)

when a
cowherd composes
poems
　　　new poetry
　　　will flourish


I do these translations a bit before I write the entries, and usually I can find the websites again that have helped me in the translation, but in this case I can't... Somewhere on the internet is a poem which has a translation of the above tanka in the middle, which was helpful for my understanding, but I've lost the website. It reminded me that 'yomu' can mean 'compose' as well as 'read', though as I've slightly edited my translation (since looking at other sites) in the process of completing this entry, I'm not sure whether it was entirely correct.

This Japanese interpretation has led me to the above translation. There seems to be some kind of socialist message that when poems are written not as a diversion for the leisured classes, but by ordinary people with real jobs like cowherds, then the poetry revolution will happen and a genuinely new style of poetry will come about. Ito came from a farming family himself. However, the message is subverted by coming in a very traditional tanka form, and this leads the Japanese writer from the linked website to say that Ito has written a meta-tanka. Finally, while I think it's a convincing interpretation, the idea of cowherds not usually writing poems very much goes against the Western pastoral tradition where shepherds are always writing poems. Either the Japanese tradition is different, or I've misinterpreted the poem...