By Masami Takemoto / Special to The Japan News
11:00 JST, August 9, 2024
In 1904, at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Emperor Meiji composed a waka poem. This classical form consists of 31 syllables in a pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. The poem reads as follows:
The waka has been translated by Harold Wright, an American scholar of Japanese literature, as follows:
“It was our belief that all the world’s oceans were born of one mother, so why do the winds and waves now rise up in angry rage?”
In a constitutional monarchy, the Emperor could not express opposition to government decisions. Instead, he often expressed his genuine feelings through waka, composing as many as 93,032 poems in his lifetime.
Revealing his feelings about going to war with Russia, this poem reached various countries around the world. It is said to have moved then U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and contributed to the........