KYODO NEWS



 

Japanese Emperor Naruhito, in a poem recited at the annual New Year's Poetry Reading on Wednesday, expressed how he was heartened to see children talk about their dreams for the future during official visits across Japan.

The emperor and Empress Masako visited Ishikawa Prefecture three times to comfort victims of the major earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day last year. The couple also made official trips to Okayama, Saga, Gifu and Oita prefectures.

The ceremony at the Imperial Palace was also attended for the first time by the emperor's daughter, Princess Aiko, who started working at the Japanese Red Cross Society last spring.

Among other attendees were the empress, Crown Prince Fumihito, his wife Princess Kiko and members of the general public whose poems were selected.

The theme of this year's poems at the reading was "yume," which means "dream."

The official translation of the poem written by the emperor and provided by the Imperial Household Agency reads as follows:

The children I met on my journeys

Talked with sparkling eyes

Of their dreams for the future

Empress Masako's poem reminisced about her time as a student at Britain's University of Oxford, which she visited last June for the first time in 34 years, along with the emperor, who also studied at the university.

Some thirty years after my departure

I visit with His Majesty

Our Alma Mater in Britain

And I recall the youthful dreams

I dreamt then

Princess Aiko used her poem to convey how she felt upon graduating from Gakushuin University last year.

Until the day we meet again

My friends and I will

Each follow our dreams

Compositions by imperial family members and 10 pieces chosen from among 16,250 entries submitted by the public were read in the traditional style at the reading.

Waka poetry was developed by the court aristocracy in ancient Japan. A "tanka" poem, the most common form of waka, consists of 31 syllables in a pattern of 5-7-5-7-7.