Poem by Abe no Nakamaro, from the series One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki)

Katsushika Hokusai Japanese

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Abe no Nakamaro (698–770) composed this poem in China, in his longing for home:

Amanohara
furisake mireba
Kasuga naru
Mikasa no yama ni
ideshi tsuki ka mo

It might be the moon that shone
above Mount Mikasa in Nara
that I see in this faraway land
when now I look
across the vast fields of the stars.

Poem by Abe no Nakamaro, from the series One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki), Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760–1849 Tokyo (Edo)), Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, Japan

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