The Jlit website is a (largely) academic site devoted to various aspects of one of the world's great literatures. As a single-webmaster operation, the site has tended to expand in a leisurely and somewhat haphazard fashion. Nevertheless, there is material here that is not readily available elsewhere, so feel free to browse.

 

Poem 95 from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets

 

   ōkenaku

ukiyo no tami ni

   ōu kana

wa ga tatsu soma ni

sumizome no sode

 

   Unworthy as I am,

I shall raise a cover to protect

   those of this mournful world.

For I now live on Mount Hiei

in a robe with sleeves dyed black.

-- Former Archbishop Jien

For notes and more poems, start here.

 

 

 

 

The Annotated Bushido is a companion site of the Jlit website. The complete text of this iconic study of Japanese ethics is provided online, along with extensive notes and careful indications of textual differences between the 1900 and 1905 editions.