Six Empress Jito poems from the Japanese anthology Man’yoshu

(Translation by Ian Hideo Levy)

• (28)
• Spring has passed,
• and summer seems to have arrived:
• garments of white cloth
• hung to dry
• on heavenly Kagu Hill.

• (76)
• I can hear the bowstrings twang
• on the brave men’s leather armbands
• as the warrior’s general
• stands the shields for drill.

• (78)
• If I depart, and leave behind
• the village of Asuka,
• where the birds fly,
• I shall no longer be able
• to see the place where you abide.

• (147)
• Turning to gaze
• upon the fields of heaven,
• I see my Lord’s long life
• Stretch to fill the firmament.

• (148)
• My eyes can see
• your presence hovering
• over Kohata,
• of the blue flags,
• but I cannot meet you in the flesh.

• (149)
• As the living are unfit
• for commune with the gods,
• so I am separated from you,
• Lord whom I grieve for in the morning,
• so I am kept from you,
• Lord whom I long for.
• If you were a jewel,
• I would wrap you round my wrist.
• If you were a robe,
• I would never take you off.
• Lord whom I long for,
• last night I saw you
• in a dream.

Empress Jito (645-703 AD) was the 41st monarch of Japan and a poet whose work offered a bird’s eye view of Japanese palace life. Her poems were of such renown that they appeared in the classic Japanese anthology, the Man’yoshu (“Ten Thousand Leaves”). Jito ruled for eleven years (686-697) after her husband and uncle, Emperor Tenmu, died. She was the daughter of Emperor Tenji (626-672), who also wrote verse which appeared in the anthology.