Readings from the Manyoshu
The Manyoshu
Columbia University Press
1965Emperor Yuryaku 1.1
Your basket, with your pretty basket,
Your trowel, with your little trowel,
Maiden, picking herbs on this hill?side,
I would ask you: Where is your home?
Will you not tell me your name?
Over the spacious Land of Yamato
It is I who reign so wide and far,
It is I who rule so wide and far.
I myself, as your lord, will tell you
Of my home, and my name.
Emperor Jomei 1.2Climbing Kagu-yama and looking upon
the land.Countless are the mountains in Yamato,
But perfect is the heavenly hill of Kagu;
When I climb it and survey my realm,
Over the wide plain the smokewreaths rise and rise,
Over the wide lake the gulls are on the wing;
A beautiful land it is, the Land of Yamato IThe stag of the Ogura Mountain
That cries when evening comes,
Cries not to?night-
Is it that he sleeps ?
Empress Kogyoku [4-1]
Presented to the Emperor Jomei by a messenger, Hashibito Oyu, on the occasion
of his bunting on the plain of Uchi.I hear the twang of the mid-string,
Of his royal birchwood bow,
Which my Sovereign, ruling in peace,
Loves to handle at break of day,
And fondly leans against with dusk.
Now he must be out for his morning hunt,
Now he must be out for his evening chase;
I hear the twang of the mid-string
Of his loved birchwood bow!Envoy
With horses drawn abreast
On the open waste of Uchi,
This morning he must be trampling
That grassy land !From the age of the gods [IV 48 5 -7]
Men have been begotten and begetting;
They overflow this land of ours.
I see them go hither and thither
Like flights of teal -
But not you whom I love.
So I yearn each day till the day is over,
And each night till the dawn breaks;
Sleeplessly I pass this long, long night!Envoys
Though men go in noisy multitudes
Like flights of teal over the mountain edge,
To me?oh what loneliness,
Since you are absent whom I love.By the Toko Mountain in Omi,
There flows the Isaya, River of Doubt.
I doubt whether nowadays
You, too, still think of me?
Emperor TenjiThe Three Hills. [1:13?5]
Mount Kagu strove with Mount Miminashi
For the love of Mount Unebi.
Such is love since the age of the gods;
As it was thus in the early days,
So people strive for spouses even now.Envoys
When Mount Kagu and Mount Miminashi wrangled,
A god came over and saw it
On the rich banner?like clouds
That rim the waste of waters
The evening sun is glowing,
And promises to?night
The moon in beauty !
Empress lwa-no-himeLonging for the Emperor Nintoku.
Since you, my Lord, were gone,
Many long, long days have passed.
Should I now come to meet you
And seek you beyond the mountains,
Or still await you - await you everRather would I lay me down
On a steep hill's side,
And, with a rock for pillow, die,
Than live thus, my Lord,
With longing so deep for you.Yes, I will live on
And wait for you,
Even till falls
On my long black waving hair
The hoar frost of age.How shall my yearning ever cease
Fade somewhere away,
As does the mist of morning
Shimmering across the autumn field
Over the ripening grain ?
Empress Yamato -himePresented to the Emperor Tenji on the
occasion of His Majesty's illness.[11:147]
I turn and gaze far
Towards the heavenly plains.
Lo, blest is my Sovereign Lord
His long life overspans
The vast blue firmament.,[After the death of the Emperor . [1: 148]
Though my eyes could see your spirit soar
Above the hills of green-bannered Kohata,
No more may I meet you face to face.['1: 149]
Others may cease to remember,
But I cannot forget you
Your beauteous phantom shape
Ever haunts my sight![11 153]
On the occasion of the temporary enshrine-
ment of the Emperor Tenji.On the vast lake, of Omi
You boatmen that come rowing
From the far waters,
And you boatmen that come rowing
Close by the shore,
Ply not too hard your oars in the far waters,
Ply not too hard your oars by the shore,
Lest you should startle into flight
The birds beloved of my dear husband!
Prince Shotoku[III: 415]
On seeing a man dead on Mount Tatsuta
during his trip to the Well of Takahara.Had he been at home, he would have slept
Upon his wife's dear arm;
Here he lies dead, unhappy man,
On his journey, grass for pillow.
These are from the earliest poems in the Manyoshu. These were probably written after the years, CE 456-79, the time of the Emperor Yuryaku ,and CE 712, the beginning fo the Nara Period. They poems are very lyrical a fact that suggests that they well may have been sung.