Year-end Presentations of Waka Poems

Year-end Presentation of Five Waka Poems by His Majesty the Emperor

The View from The Okinawa Peace Memorial Hall

My eyes range over
The site of a battleground
That saw fierce fighting,
And beyond it, lo, the sea
Calm and peaceful meets my gaze.

Okushiri Island

I am sorrowful
To see the smoke wreaths rising
From things burning out,
There along the island shore
All strewn with broken houses.

Atending the funeral of King Baudouin

I visited the
Chateau of the Belgian King
Where he lives no more-
He who was my bosom friend
Down the last forty long years.

Berlin

The wall that so long
Rent asunder East and West
Is at last torn down.
People greet me here today
All singing "An die Freude".

Meeting people who had volunteered to come for the Palace Labour Service

With an aching heart
I heard of great damage wrought
By relentless rains,
From the good country people
Who've come for labour service.

Year-end Presentation of Three Waka Poems by Her Majesty the Empress

Celebrating the Wedding of the Crown Prince

(on the given theme:"the verdant mountain")

Hand in hand
May you climb together
The mountain, which,
Now green with foliage,
Must be garmented in serene beauty.

On the Eve of the Sacred Transposition at Ise

The chirping of insects
Rises from under autumen grasses,
And I stand waiting
As the moment of sacred transposition
Draws gradually near.

On Moving from the Old palace to the New

This palace,
Where His Majesty and I
Spent some thirty years together,
Had a window through which we often
Viewed the sky aglow at sunset.