@article{oai:icu.repo.nii.ac.jp:00005078,
 author = {Barova-Özcan, Pana},
 issue = {52},
 journal = {人文科学研究 : キリスト教と文化},
 month = {Dec},
 note = {This paper is inspired by Prof. Tzvetana Kristeva’s monumental study on
the poetic image of tears, Namida no shigaku: Ōchō bungaku ni okeru shiteki
gengo (The Poetics of Tears: Poetic Language in the Literature of the Heian Court),
and is based on my Ph.D. research done under her supervision.
The paper discusses the poetic image of tears in the Sarashina nikki
(Sarashina Diary, ca. 1058), written by Takasue no Musume, Takasue’s
daughter.
The image of tears is a recurrent motif throughout the Sarashina Diary,
but it is especially prominent in its opening and closing parts, which present
it in contrasting ways.
In the opening part, a travelogue from the Eastern provinces to the
capital, the image of tears is not explicit and is suggested through the
use of toponyms, utamakura and landscape descriptions. I traced the
poetic allusions and associations with tears created by the toponyms and
utamakura in the travelogue, using the CD-ROM version of the complete
waka collection Kokka Taikan. I came to the conclusion that although the
image of tears can be ambiguous and have multiple interpretations, one of
its main functions is to evoke the character of Ukifune, the tragic heroine
from the Tale of Genji, and to prepare the reader for a story with no romantic
development—an unusual deviation from the genre of nikki bungaku, to
which the Sarashina Diary belongs.
Tears are a focusing image in the final poems of the diary as well,
providing a connection with its beginning. The “hidden” tears in the
opening part are a prelude to a life story where the protagonist suffers
bereavement and disappointment, and romance is only a vicarious
experience through fiction. At the end of the story the heroine is “openly
shedding tears” expressing an all-encompassing feeling of sadness,
including sadness related to the absence and/or impossibility of romance.},
 pages = {101--122},
 title = {The Poetic Meaning of Tears in the Opening and Closing Parts of the Sarashina nikki},
 year = {2020}
}