Nathan Hanson

ENC1101

28 January 2025

Assignment 4:

Seventh Night Poems

Throughout history, we have seen the beginning of many different forms of writing and as time goes on into today’s society we see these writing forms develop. In the case of poetry at least in America it almost seems to be a lost art, however, in Japan, it is a beautiful form of writing that seems will be around for generations to come. In Japan we see poetry being used to pass along the stories, legends, concepts, and ideals that have been taught for generations and are crucial to their culture and society.

With that the Tanabata poems are no exception, telling the story of two lovers Oxherd and Weaver girl who are forever and love and yet they can’t be together, destined to forever be apart except for one day. This story has a heavy impact on Japanese culture and is celebrated every year on July 7th, the one night a year that the star-crossed lovers can be together.

The Japanese celebrate this annual event with a festival enriched with Japanese culture displaying their history and creativity as well as allowing the people to express themselves with written expression.

The story of Oxherd and Weaver girl is one filled with love, passion, and desperation as for 364 days of the year they long for one another, they are destined to be together bounded by true love, but will forever be apart all but for one day. Love is seen only as a deep-rooted emotion in Japanese culture, one that aids the belief that love brings unity to the people who were meant to be together. These ideals are rooted in the story of Oxherd and Weaver Girl as we see that no form of separation no matter how big and how far apart they grow they will forever be destined to be together in the end.

The poems I have chosen to analyze are (VIII- 1520-22) beginning with the line “ The Oxherd and the Weaver Maid standing…”; (X-2041) starting with “Yon white clouds blown…”; (X-2052) beginning with “The raindrops…”.

The first poem (VIII - 1520-22) begins with The Oxherd and the Weaver girl standing face to face across the river from one another. The poem initially begins with the aspect of Oxherd telling readers of his love and the pain he feels towards the Weaver girl using phrases like “Never has he ceased from loving, Never has he ceased from grieving”. Right from the beginning we are met with our two characters and immediately put on display how they are separated from one another despite the love they feel for one another and the grief they feel being separated from each other. It's later said in the poem “The lovers would spread their celestial scarf, and lie their beautiful arms interlocked” Once again establishing the idea that despite being separated by the river of heaven their love can and will never be broken.

The second poem (X - 2041) is a shorter poem told in the third person and it describes the sky as we look up upon it, and how as we look up at the sky and feel the winds pass us by we look up and see the stars and wonder “May it not be the celestial scarf of the weaver, the star-maid” This brief poem allows the readers to take a second and look upon the night sky across the river of heaven and think to themselves about the two lovers and wonder when they will meet again and to think about how beautiful love is.

The third poem (X - 2052) is another short poem told from a third-person point of view in which it describes a little more of a somber issue of the story depending on how you the reader perceive it. We read about the raindrops that are falling from the sky and we allow ourselves to ask the question “Are, perhaps, the spray From the oars of the Oxherd, Rowing fast his boat”. In this we can determine it in two ways: we can perceive that the Oxherd is venturing out to be with his one true love, paddling across the river of heaven, or we can perceive that these may be the tears of the Oxherd, who's crying since he is doomed to never truly be with his love.

We can see now how amazing it is that writing can have such a lasting impact on society, we can see in the Tanabata Poems how they express the importance and general longing for love and affection in the world. It's seen rooted in Japanese culture from the very beginning rooted not only in poetry but other forms of storytelling and ancient literature. The Tanabata Poems express ideals that are not only important to Japanese culture but they express ideas that can be valued in every other culture as well, which is why they’ve been around for hundreds of generations and will be around for hundreds more.