Angel Castillo
April 5, 2009
Professor Rosen
Poetry Explication
Cathy Song “Beauty and Sadness”
The poem starts with the lines “He drew hundreds of women in studies unfolding like flowers from a fan.” This line immediately establishes in the reader’s mind that these women were Utamoro’s canvases and their very beings were portrayed through his paintings. Utamoro chose to draw women who were workers or provided a service of some kind in the era of feudal Japan. These women that he drew quickly placed themselves at his disposal because he worked so quickly to capture their everlasting beauty. Song also states that Utamoro’s “invisible presence” is still felt through his paintings. While sensing his presence through his painting is an important concept in the poem, more importantly is his amazing ability to captivate his audience by obtaining these women’s “fleeting beauty”; meaning that these women were so beautiful that it could surpass one if they weren’t closely examined. Their beauty was so stunning that Utamoro’s images immortalized them.
The next stanza is a comparison between the women and cats bathing. Song compares Utamoro’s women to cats who are known for their grace and beauty. Song paints the portrait of Utamoro’s women and their clothing in this stanza by saying things such as “…amid the layers of kimono swirling around them…” which depicts women posing with yards upon yards of amazingly colored fabrics. It also assists the reader in understanding what types of clothing were generally used when Utamoro painted. They’re also described as cats bathing in “mountain pools with irises growing in the silken sunlight water.” Once again, there’s a comparison between the women and the cats, because the women are so graceful and almost undeniably well poised that the only animal that they can be compared to are cats. In the same stanza they are also compared to porcelain vases that stand tall and erect. Their hair that stood tall and high on their heads and adorned with blossoms and combs were used to keep them in everlasting beauty. This stanza speaks much about their beauty and how they acted and looked while they were painted.
Utamoro painted women from Edo (feudal Japan) capturing them during their moments of both weakness and strength, and never allowing those moments escape his brush and paper. He wanted to paint them as they truly were and not just the way they were depicted by others. Song states that he also captured the beauty when they were fully clothed or “half draped”, which can be seen as Utamoro making sure that moment of truth never went unseen. This specific line speaks a lot about Utamoro capturing them in moments of exposure and peace. The following section also speaks about Utamoro being able to immortalize them in the moment of hurt and anguish. In reading this stanza, the audience is also able to pick up the idea that Utamoro was looking for a way to paint these women in ways that the public didn’t understand or didn’t want to see. Song believes that Utamoro wanted to open the doors of the women’s lives and rituals to the public eye by painting them as they were and not as whom people thought they were.
The focus of the next stanza seems to be Utamoro’s feelings of indifference and how those feelings affected his portraits, especially the colors used. Song compares Utamoro’s colors during times of indifference to “dusty ash-winged moths” and while at first glance it seems to be something negative that Song is saying, in reality she is stating how his colors tended to be softer then most painters. The soft and dry coloring added to the peace and serenity that these women maintained through out their lives. By comparing Utamoro’s colors to moth wings, Song is tying his colors in with their lifestyles. The final stanza speaks of how Utamoro gave these women immortality through his painting and gave them a place in history. This final piece also simply states that he took his freshly painted works home underneath his coat during winter to keep it safe.
