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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
権中納言匡房
高砂の
尾の上の桜
咲きにけり
外山の霞
立たずもあらなむ
とやまのか
すみたたす
もあらなむ
たか
- Poem 73
- 高砂の
尾の上の桜
咲きにけり
外山の霞 立たずもあらなむ
Author: Acting Middle Counselor Masafusa (1041–1111)
Source: Go Shūi Wakashū, Spring
- English Verse Translation
- The cherry trees are blossoming On Takasago's height; Oh may no mountain mist arise, No
clouds so soft and white, To hide them from our sight.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- The cherry blossoms on the high peaks of Takasago have already bloomed. Let the mist not rise over the foothills and hide them from view.
- Commentary
- According to the headnote in the Go Shūi Wakashū, this poem was composed "at a banquet held at the residence of the Minister of the Center, on the topic of gazing at distant mountain cherry blossoms." It was written at a drinking party held at the residence of Minister of the Center Fujiwara no Moromichi, on the set topic of "gazing at distant mountain cherry blossoms."
- About the Poet
- Acting Middle Counselor Masafusa, known formally as Ōe no Masafusa, was a great-grandson of Akazome Emon (Poem 59). The Ōe family produced generations of scholars, and Masafusa himself excelled in learning from childhood, becoming an advanced student of literature at the age of sixteen. Deeply versed in court customs and precedent, he served as tutor to Emperors Go-Sanjō, Shirakawa, and Horikawa, and rose to the rank of Middle Counselor as a trusted advisor on matters of policy.
- Acting Middle Counselor Masafusa'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)
On a distant ridge,
the long-awaited pale pink light begins to glow.Please, mist, don't hide
this beauty from me — not yet.
- 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).