Natsume Sōseki Comments

I wish I had Written three-line poems And become world-famous.

君が代や年々に減る厄払 waga dai ya nennen ni heru yakubarai people of my age - with the passing of years less impurities to cleanse

In 1900, the Japanese government sent Sōseki to study in Great Britain as Japan's first Japanese English literary scholar. He wrote about that period: '' The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant years in my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that had strayed among a pack of wolves. ''