Year-end Presentations of Waka Poems

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

The great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake

I am sad at heart
To see the rain pour down on
People who to flee
The threat of quakes must stay
Shelterless in open air.

The Cornerstone of Peace

Serried row on row,
Stone monuments carved over
Fully with the names
Of all who were lost in the
Battle of Okinawa.

Now that fifty years have elapsed since the dropping of the atom bomb

All of those people
Suffering still the evils
Of the atom bomb
Oh, what must have been the pain
Of their days down fifty years!

Visiting the area devastated by the volcanic eruptions of Mount Unzen's Fugen Peak

The eruptions that
Went on more than four long years,
Have at last ended:
In fields of the ruined place
Pasture grasses are thriving.

On hearing about this year's crop conditions from members of the volunteer labour service, coming from all over the country.

So many people
Tell me of crops have ripened
In rich abundance,
I am gladdened and rejoice
At this year's fruitful autumn

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

At Doll's Festival Time

Spring lanterns
Move me to sadness
As the doll's festival comes again
But this year without dolls
In the quake-stricken areas

At a Tree-Planting Festival

They are absorbed
In planting saplings
In the clear light of early summer
Ah! may there never be war
In the future of these children

On Visiting Hiroshima in May

Fifty years from bombing,
Now on the earth of Hiroshima,
Dropping so gently,
A rain shedding where it falls
Only the fragrance of rain