2021-01-01

Original Japanese

万葉の時代から明治の歌人、そしていまの私たちへと、歌の心は脈々と引き継がれてきたと思います。要は、１３００年前もいまも、恋歌が詠む「あなたのことが好き」という気持ちは変わらないのです

--俵万智さんが「だれでもが歌にときめく万葉集講座」の中で

English Translation

I think that the heart and soul of songs and poems have been passed down to us in an unbroken line from the age of the Man'youshuu to the tanka poets of the Meiji era to us, today. In short, whether it be 1300 years ago or now, the feeling that poets want to express, "I love you," is unchanging.

-- from Tawara Machi's A Man'youshuu Lecture Series So That Anyone Can Be Moved By the Poems