The Burke Collection
Three poems from Kokin wakashū (古今和歌集)
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517-1

Catalogue information

Kamakura period, 13th century

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

23.4 x 9.8 cm (9 1/4 x 3 7/8 in.)

Donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation in 2015

Additional details

Text

[Poem 533] No more than the white waves dancing across the inlet / where reed ducks cry out noisily / does my love know of my yearning.

[Poem 534] Like fiery Mount Fuji in Suruga / my yearning burns within — as eternally smoldering / passion my love can never know.

[Poem 535] Would that my love could know my yearning / deep as these lonely mountains / where not even the songs of soaring wild birds can be heard.