THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 2, 2018 at 15:25 JST
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko with other members of the imperial family (Provided by the Imperial Household Agency)
Emperor Akihito's thoughts turned to his visits to Vietnam and Thailand, among other things, and Empress Michiko reminisced about her conversations with southern islanders of Japan in "waka" poems the couple composed.
The eight 31-syllable poems were released by the Imperial Household Agency. Five were by Akihito, 84, and three by Michiko, 83.
The couple composed them last year and selected the eight for New Year's release.
In one, the emperor expressed his admiration for the Vietnamese people’s resilience in the face of various wars and conflicts even after World War II had finished and the country's rise to prosperity. In another, he depicted bidding farewell to Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej while recalling his exchanges with the monarch over half a century.
The emperor and empress visited Vietnam and Thailand between February and March.
The emperor’s five poems are as follows:
The 68th National Arbor Day Festival
Tateyama-sugi
Non-pollen Japanese cedar
Here have I planted
Hoping no one will suffer
From pollen any longer.
At the Opening Ceremony of the 72nd National Sports Festival
The stadium lawn
Its green vivid and splendid
Here in Ehime
National Sports Festival
As the athletes come marching in.
The 37th Convention for the Development of an Abundantly Productive Sea
Japanese abalone
And Japanese littleneck
Handing them the fry
I think of the fishermen
Of their lives and livelihoods.
Visiting Vietnam
How did they live through
Those years of fighting and war
My thoughts went out to them
As we visited this land
The country of Vietnam.
Visiting Thailand to pay respects to the late king
There lies the late king
I sit before his coffin
As I remember
The many days and years
Of our warm and close friendship.
The empress composed "Name" after she realized in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake there is a district called Nobiru in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, a coastal city battered by towering tsunami generated by the magnitude-9.0 temblor. Nobiru is also the name of a familiar plant the empress often picks in the gardens of the Imperial Palace.
The empress also described cherished memories of exchanges with inhabitants of the islands of Kuchinoerabujima, Yakushima, Okinoerabujima and Yoronjima in southern Kagoshima Prefecture in November. The empress’ three poems are as follows:
Travel
“My father’s land”
Speaking thus of Japan
Here these people live
In this faraway Vietnam
Where we have come to visit.
After World War II, Japanese soldiers who had stayed on in Vietnam were forced to return to Japan without their Vietnamese wives and children.
Name
“Nobiru” in the news
Plant’s name dear and familiar
’Tis also a name
Of a disaster-stricken area
Deeply etched in my mind.
Islands in the south
We have come far
To spend the time together
With the islanders
How we treasure these three days
Both His Majesty and I.
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