Classic Poem

In the reign of
that far-off ancestor too,
all under heaven
was ruled from
this light-swept land
of Naniwa —
even today
they go on telling of it.
And now our great lord —
it awes me
to speak of her,
god that she is —
in the start of spring
with its bending limbs,
when a thousand different blossoms
unfold and shine
and mountains when you look at them
are the rarest sights,
and rivers when you look at them
flow fresh and clear,
now when all things
are in their splendor,
she surveyed the land,
observed it with care,
and here raised up
these halls of
the Naniwa palace.
From lands of the four directions
the boats bearing
tribute for her
thread their way
through the canals,
in the morning calm
plying oars as they go upstream,
with the evening tide
dipping their poles, moving seaward.
Pushing and crowding
like flocks of mallards,
we go out to the beach
and look over the sea,
and beyond the white waves
that break in fold on fold,
the little boats of the fishermen
are bobbing here and there,
near and far
fishing with flares
to provide food
for the royal table.
A setting wonderful
in its spaciousness,
so superb,
so vast —
seeing it, I know
why rulers have dwelt here
since the age of the gods.

ENVOYS

Cherry flowers
at their finest now,
when in the light-swept palace
by the sea of Naniwa
our sovereign reigns

I think how I'd like to spend
a year in Naniwa
where the reed leaves blow,
looking out at the vastness
of these stretching seas