Waka
Princess Oku
56-7 On her arrival at the capital after the death of Prince Otsu. [II: 105-6]
Would that I had stayed
In the land of Ise
Of the Divine Wind.
Why have I come
Now that he is dead!
Now that he is no more-
My dear brother-
Whom I so longed to see,
Why have I come,
Despite the tired horses!
58-9 Lamenting Prince Otsu on the occasion of the removal of his remains to the tomb in the Futagami Mountains.
[II: 165-6]
From tomorrow ever
Shall I regard as brother
The twin-peaked mountain of Futagami-
I, daughter of man!
I would break off the branch
Of the flowering staggerbush
Growing on the rocky shore;
But no one says he lives
To whom I would show it!
Kakinomoto Hitomaro
79-80 On an imperial visit to the pleasure-palace of Yoshinu. [I: 38-9]
Our great Sovereign, a goddess,
Of her sacred will
Has reared a towering palace
On Yoshinu's shore,
Encircled by its rapids;
And, climbing, she surveys the land.
The overlapping mountains,
Rising like green walls,
Offer the blossoms in spring,
And with autumn, show their tinted leaves,
As godly tributes to the Throne.
The god of the Yu River, to provide the royal table,
Holds the cormorant-fishing
In its upper shallows,
And sinks the fishing-nets
In the lower stream.
Thus the mountains and the river
Serve our Sovereign, one in will;
It is truly the reign of a divinity.
Envoy
The mountains and the waters
Serve our Sovereign, one in will;
And she, a goddess, is out on her pleasure-barge
Upon the foaming rapids.
Yamabe Akahito
567-8 On a distant view of Mount Fuji. [III: 317-8]
Ever since heaven and earth were parted,
It has towered lofty, noble, divine,
Mount Fuji in Suruga!
When we look up to the plains of heaven,
The light of the sky-traversing sun is shaded,
The gleam of the shining moon is not seen,
White clouds dare not cross it,
And for ever it snows.
We shall tell of it from mouth to mouth,
O the lofty mountain of Fuji!
Envoy
When going forth I look far from the shore of Tago,
How white and glittering is
The lofty Peak of Fuji,
Crowned with snows!
Takahashi Mushimaro: From the 'Mushimaro Collection'
651-3 Mount Fuji. [III: 319-21]
Lo! There towers the lofty peak of Fuji
From between Kai and wave-washed Suruga.
The clouds of heaven dare not cross it,
Nor the birds of the air soar above it.
The snows quench the burning fires,
The fires consume the falling snow.
It baffles the tongue, it cannot be named,
It is a god mysterious.
The lake called Se is embosomed in it,
The river we cross, the Fuji is its torrent.
In the Land of Yamato, the Land of the Rising Sun,
It is our treasure, our tutelary god.
It never tires our eyes to look up
The lofty peak of Fuji!
Envoys
The snows that crown the peak of Fuji
Melt on the mid-June day,
And that night it snows again.
So lofty and awful is the peak of Fuji,
The clouds of heaven dare not cross it,
But linger trailing near!
All photos copyright Schauwecker's Guide
to Japan
All poems from Columbia
University Press- The Manyoshu.
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