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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
順徳院
ももしきや
ふるき軒ばの
しのぶにも
なほあまりある
昔なりけり
なほあまり
あるむかし
なりけり
もも
- Poem 100
- ももしきや
ふるき軒ばの
しのぶにも
なほあまりある 昔なりけり
Author: Retired Emperor Juntoku (1197–1242)
Source: Zoku Gosen Wakashū, Miscellaneous
- English Verse Translation
- My ancient Palace I regret, Though rot attacks the eaves, And o'er the roof the creeping
vine Spreads out and interweaves Unpruned its straggling leaves.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Even the ancient ferns on the old eaves of the palace — there is more than enough of the past that they call to mind.
- Commentary
- This poem is thought to have been composed by Retired Emperor Juntoku upon seeing the imperial palace so neglected that ferns had begun to grow along its eaves, as he longed for the earlier age when emperors themselves had ruled the realm directly. It was composed five years before the Jōkyū War, when Emperor Juntoku was twenty years old.
- About the Poet
- Retired Emperor Juntoku was the third son of Retired Emperor Go-Toba (Poem 99). His intelligence and lively character won his father's favor, and he ascended the throne at the age of only thirteen. He organized the customs and ceremonies of the imperial court into the Kinpishō, in an effort to affirm the significance of the court's continued existence. However, at twenty-five, he joined his father in raising the Jōkyū War, and after their defeat, he was exiled to the island of Sado. He was never allowed to return to the capital, nor to pass the throne on to his own descendants, and died there at the age of forty-six.
- Retired Emperor Juntoku's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
At the eaves of a once-glorious, now-aging palace,
the ferns sway quietly in the wind.
Remembering the brilliance of days gone by,
I find myself longing for a lost era.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).