Snipe Over a Marsh from the Three Dusks

The "Three Dusks" or "Three Evening Poems" is a famous group of three poems by three different authors. The poems are recorded in the imperial poetry anthology Shin kokinshu, compiled in the early thirteenth century. The poem below, composed by the Buddhist monk Saigyo (1118-1190), is inscribed on this painting by Kano Tan'yu, one of the leading artists of the seventeenth century.

While denying his heart,
Even a priest must feel his body knows
The depth of a sad beauty:
From a marsh at autumn twilight
Snipes that rise and wing away.

Using only the palest tones of ink and tints of translucent color, Tan'yu has created a subtle and indefinite pictorial image that echoes the mood of the poem.  The refined and elegant calligraphy of the inscription is attributed to Imperial Prince Ryosho (1622-1693), who became a Buddhist monk in 1634.

Translation by Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner, Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961)