Three poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Kokin wakashū)

Fujiwara no Tameyori

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Connoisseurs in the past attributed this work to the hand of courtier-poet Fujiwara no Tameyori. In doing so, they seem to have made a speculative connection between the content of the calligraphic fragment, in this case poems from Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (ca. 905), imaging that it was from an early transcription of this literary classic. This style of court calligraphy did not appear until two hundred years later. Each of the three anonymously composed poems is rendered in two columns. The poem on the far left reads: Tobu tori no koe mo kikoenu okuyama no fukaki kokoro o hito wa shiranan If only my lover knew my deepest feelings, deep as these remote hills, where even the songs of birds can’t be heard. —Trans. John T. Carpenter

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art