Please enjoy a selection of love poems from the Manyoshu Exhibition which are enhanced by the photos of Kyoto based photographer Akio Nishimoto. The landscapes shown in the photos are from the actual places mentioned in the poems mostly located in Nara.
A selection of love poems from the Manyoshu
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| Just one look at her and I drown in emotions like waves of wisteria overwhelming, impossible to bear * |
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| The sound of the bamboo screen fills my heart with expectation...is that you? Alas, it is but the autumn wind playing tricks on my mind |
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| My beloved wife has lost her way the mountain path strewn heavily with autumn leaves I try in vain to find her but alas I cannot find the way * |
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| The deer who cries out each night Kogura mountain is silent tonight Maybe he sleeps early, his longing fulfilled |
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| Each time I take the snow which has fallen on the plum blossoms is melts away Oh how I long to show it to you! |
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| Even for two it is an arduous journey How will you fare alone crossing the autumn mountains ? * |
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| I care not comb my dishevelled hair for their still lies my lover's touch from where I lay pillowed in his arms |
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| I will keep waiting for you even until my long thick black hair turns white from the frost |
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| Like the red lilly spider blossoms blazing by the wayside our love has been revealed for all to see * |
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| I have thought with such longing for you Is that why my eyebrows crescent like a three day old moon now itch in anticipation of you coming? |
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| I think of you lovingly as I gaze into the hydrangeas Live many long years my beloved like the splendor of these blossoms |
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| The cuckoo's call from the lush treetops of the summer mountains echoes across time |
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| My heart is lifted with joy remembering the shining camellias of the spring fields in Kose |
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| Oh plover your cry over the evening waves of Omi overwhelms my heart with memories of days long gone |
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| Will the cherry blossoms scatter in this moment knowing that like our love the loveliness of the blossoms has also reached their peak * |
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| To have endured such long seperation! Stay with me yet my love until the moonlight fades into the deepness of the night |
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| Like the moonlight streaming over the Hatsuse mountains our souls too are transient journeying through eternity * |
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| Still far away I remember your presence with the sweet fragrance of the plum blossoms intoxicating my heart |
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| I gaze afar with an expectant heart to where my beloved wife dwells Alas the towering mountains shield her from my view Oh how far I have travelled from my beloved Yamato * |
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| Oh to bear such feelings of anguish I too want to vanish like the dew on the pampas grass |
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