Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro Comments

' When she was still alive ' When she was still alive We would go out, arm in arm, And look at the elm trees Growing on the embankment In front of our house. Their branches were interlaced. Their crowns were dense with spring leaves. They were like our love. Love and trust were not enough to turn back The wheels of life and death. She faded like a mirage over the desert. One morning like a bird she was gone In the white scarves of death. Now when the child Whom she left in her memory Cries and begs for her, All I can do is pick him up And hug him clumsily. I have nothing to give him. In our bedroom our pillows Still lie side by side, As we lay once. I sit there by myself And let the days grow dark. I lie awake at night, sighing till daylight. No matter how much I mourn I shall never see her again. They tell me her spirit May haunt Mount Hagai Under the eagles’ wings. I struggle over the ridges And climb to the summit. I know all the time That I shall never see her, Not even so much as a faint quiver in the air. All my longing, all my love Will never make any difference. [ Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ]

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro is one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals (Immortals of Poetry) - 三十六歌仙 Sanjūrokkasen - They are 36 Japanese poets of the Nara, Asuka and Heian periods selected by Fujiwara no Kintō as exemplars of Japanese poetic ability.

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

kuni wasuretaru / ie matamaku ni Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (Man’yōshū: 426)

His best poem, in my opinion, is 'When She Was Still Alive', which is not listed on this website.