To Iwamaro
I say this:
If you've slimmed down in summer
There's one thing that works:
...
My great lord
Gave a dread command:
So I parted from my wife,
Though filled with sadness;
...
Ōtomo no Yakamochi (c. 718 – October 5, 785) was a Japanese statesman and waka poet in the Nara period. He is a member of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals He was born into the prestigious Ōtomo clan; his grandfather was Ōtomo no Amaro and his father was Ōtomo no Tabito. Ōtomo no Kakimochi was his younger brother, and Ōtomo no Sakanoe no Iratsume his aunt. His granduncle is possibly Ōtomo no Komaro who came to Japan in the time of Jitō Tennō. Yakamochi was one of the compilers of the Man'yōshū, the first poetry anthology created in Japanese history, for which he not only wrote several poems but also transcribed, rewrote, and refashioned an unknown number of ancient poems and folklore. He was the most prolific and prominent writer of his time, and had a great influence on the Shika Wakashū as well)
Eat Eels
To Iwamaro
I say this:
If you've slimmed down in summer
There's one thing that works:
Catch and eat eels!
Ōtomo no Yakamochi has 46 'songs' and 432 tanka in the anthology Man’yōshū, comprising over ten per cent of its contents.
_________________________________ Fujiwara no Kintō established the grouping of the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses or Thirty-six Poetry Immortals (Sanjūrokkasen) in the ''Anthology of Poems by the Thirty-Six Poets'': Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Ki no Tsurayuki Ōshikōchi Mitsune Lady Ise Ōtomo no Yakamochi Yamabe no Akahito Ariwara no Narihira Henjō Sosei Ki no Tomonori Sarumaru no Taifu Ono no Komachi Fujiwara no Kanesuke Fujiwara no Asatada Fujiwara no Atsutada Fujiwara no Takamitsu Minamoto no Kintada Mibu no Tadamine Saigū no Nyōgo / Kishi Joō Ōnakatomi no Yoritomo Fujiwara no Toshiyuki Minamoto no Shigeyuki Minamoto no Muneyuki Minamoto no Saneakira Fujiwara no Kiyotada Minamoto no Shitagō Fujiwara no Okikaze Kiyohara no Motosuke Sakanoue no Korenori Fujiwara no Motozane Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu Fujiwara no Nakafumi Taira no Kanemori Mibu no Tadami Kodai no Kimi Nakatsukasa ____________________________________________
Yakamochi’s style of poetry often had a melancholic air covering a wide range of themes. Some literary critics have often compared his work to that of two other famous Japanese poets whose work was also in that anthology – Kakinomoto Hitomaro and Yamanoue Okura – though it is generally believed that Yakamochi never actually achieved their standard of greatness.