While re-reading the Pillow Book lately, one of the people in Sei Shonagon’s anecdotes recites a poem from an Imperial anthology: the Kokin Wakashu (Kokinshu for short).¹ When I looked up the poem, it really struck me when I read it. Since I have an English translation of the Kokin Wakashu, and since many of the poems from the Hyakunin Isshu were originally published in the Kokin Wakashu, I figured it would be fun to post other poems from the same anthology.

This poem, poem number 52 of the Kokin Wakashu, reads as follows:

Japanese	Romanization	Translation
年ふれば	Toshi fureba	As the years stream by
よはわひいはわ老いぬ	Yowai wa oinu	my own life passes from me
しかはあれど	Shika wa aredo	still I am renewed
花をおし見れば	Hana oshi mireba	when I but see the blossoms
物思もなし	Mono omoi mo nashi	my heart’s sorrows disappear

The headline of this poem reads “seeing cherry blossoms in a vase before the Somedono Consort [Empress]“.²

The author of the poem, Fujiwara no Yoshifusa (藤原良房, 804 – 872), was the first member of the Fujiwara clan to assume the post of Regent to the emperor. This was at a time when the Fujiwara were a rising star in the Imperial court, had married into the Imperial family, and Yoshifusa was the grandfather of the young Emperor Seiwa. So, he had much to celebrate. However, even the powerful grow old and die, and Yoshifusa was no exception.

What I really like about this poem is that in spite of his own fears of growing old, he still can enjoy life here and now and feel young again.

I am at the age where I can definitely start to feel my age, and the years ahead of me are likely fewer than the years behind me, and yet I am rarely bothered by it. I often find moments of joy in life, playing with my kids, enjoying nerdy fandom, and savoring poetry like this, so I know how Yoshifusa feels.

¹ Nowadays, people quote movies, TV shows and such. I can quote more gags from The Simpsons than I care to admit. Back then, people quoted poetry from earlier generations.

² Many poems in the Kokin Wakashu included a headline to explain the scene of the poem, or provide some background. These were not carried over when the poems were collected in the Hyakunin Isshu since they were already well-known poems, or possibly just for the sake of brevity.