Sone no Yoshitada

Sone no Yoshitada (曾禰好忠) was a Japanese waka poet of the mid-Heian period. His exact dates of birth and death are unknown[1][2][3][4] but he flourished in the second half of the tenth century.[1] He was one of the Thirty-six Immortals of Poetry[2][4] and one of his poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.[1][5]

Sone no Yoshitada, from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

Because he was a secretary (掾, jō) of Tango Province he is occasionally known by the nicknames Sotango (曾丹後, a combination of the first character of his name with the name of the province) and Sotan (曾丹, a combination of the first characters of both his name and the province).[1][2][3][4][5] He was known as an eccentric individual[1][2] with numerous anecdotes told about him.[2][5] He was not well regarded in his own time but later was recognized as a highly innovative poet,[1][4] with roughly 90 of his poems appearing in imperial anthologies.[3]

The following poem by him was No. 46 in Fujiwara no Teika's Ogura Hyakunin Isshu:

Japanese text[5]Romanized Japanese[6]English translation[7]
由良のとを
渡る舟人
かぢをたえ
行くへも知らぬ
恋の道かな
Yura no to wo
wataru funa-bito
kaji-wo tae
yukue mo shiranu
koi no michi kana
Crossing the Straits of Yura
the boatman lost the rudder.
The boat's adrift
not knowing where it goes.
Is the course of love like this?

References
  1. McMillan 2010 : 139-140 (note 46).
  2. MyPedia article "Sone no Yoshitada". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services.
  3. Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten article "Sone no Yoshitada". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.
  4. Digital Daijisen entry "Sone no Yoshitada". Shogakukan.
  5. Suzuki et al. 2009 : 60.
  6. McMillan 2010 : 164.
  7. McMillan 2010 : 48.

Bibliography
  • McMillan, Peter. 2010 (1st ed. 2008). One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Suzuki Hideo, Yamaguchi Shin'ichi, Yoda Yasushi. 2009 (1st ed. 1997). Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. Tokyo: Bun'eidō.
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