First snow on Mt Fuji
Dec 28th, 2007 by Ad Blankestijn
The other day, passing Mt Fuji, I saw traces of the first snow near the summit of the mighty mountain. Interestingly, the Fuji was covered in clouds and only the top, in an incredibly high position in the sky where you would never expect a mountain to be, was visible.
It reminded me of one of the poems in the Hyakunin Isshu, the classical anthology used for the karuta game at New Year. The fourth poem in the book, by 8th c. poet Yamabe no Akihito, runs as follows:
As I go out on
the beach of Tago and look
I see the snow falling
on the high peak of Fuji
white as mulberry cloth
Tago no ura ni / uchi-idete mireba / shirotae no / Fuji no takane ni / yuki wa furitsutsu
[For a full translation of the Hyakunin Isshu, see Pictures of the Heart by Joshua S. Mostow (Hawaii, 1996). My translation closely follows Mostow's, which I like for its simplicity.]
