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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
阿倍仲麻呂
天の原
ふりさけみれば
春日なる
三笠の山に
出でし月かも
みかさのや
まにいてし
つきかも
あまの
- Poem 7
- 天の原
ふりさけみれば
春日なる
三笠の山に 出でし月かも
Author: Abe no Nakamaro (c. 698–770)
Source: Kokin Wakashū, Travel
- English Verse Translation
- While gazing up into the sky, My thoughts have wandered far; Methinks I see the rising moon
Above Mount Mikasa At far-off Kasuga.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Looking up at the vast sky, I see the moon. Is that the same moon that rose over Mount Mikasa in Kasuga, so long ago?
- Commentary
- The Kokin Wakashū's headnote reads, "Composed while gazing at the moon in Tang China." Abe no Nakamaro, who had spent many years in Tang China, wrote this poem at a farewell banquet held in Mingzhou (present-day Ningbo) as he prepared to return home. It is said that envoys to Tang China would perform rites at Mount Mikasa to pray for a safe voyage.
- About the Poet
- Abe no Nakamaro traveled to Tang China as a student in his late teens, accompanying a Japanese embassy. In his twenties he passed the imperial examinations and rose to serve Emperor Xuanzong in high office. His talents were so highly valued that he was never permitted to leave his post in China; only past the age of fifty did he finally set out for home, but his ship was caught in a storm and drifted to Vietnam. He eventually returned to Chang'an, where he died at the age of seventy-three.
- Abe no Nakamaro'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)
A moon over foreign skies —
and still, it feels so familiar.Though far from home, the sky is one.
I look up at the moon, and think of home.
- 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).