String of beads

Princess Shikishi, Emperor Goshirakawa's third daughter, who served as saiin, or shrine vestal, in her teens, left a body of poems luminous with tranquil beauty and sadness. In her own lifetime she was counted among the outstanding poets of the age. In this volume, noted translator Hiroaki Sato makes available in one-line form all of the tanka - 400 poems - attributed to Princess Shikishi. Following an introduction that details Shikishi's era and the prosodic techniques of her time, Sato presents a group of poems gleaned from anthologies - among them a sequence of eleven which Shikishi wrote in condolence for the death of the wife of Fujiwara no Shunzei, her mentor - and three important 100-poem sequences. To provide allusive contexts, many of the poems are accompanied by extensive footnotes and endnotes, often with complete episodes from Tale of Ise and other classical texts.