Saigyo Poem

Shinkokinshu, Miscellaneous, No. 1676

From a tree
standing on a cliff
by an old field
the voice of a dove calling a friend
in the eerie twilight.

Saigyo

The imagery of this poem was really beautiful to me. I thought it did a really good job at painting an autumn scene, not entirely desolate as a winter one might be, but close. I also enjoyed the contrasting imagery of the eerie twilight and the dove and its song, or 'voice'. Looking at the footnote, I also found it interesting that the author chose to represent himself as this dove, and is crying for friendship or love even though he has taken the Buddhist oath, going along with his style of creating tension between living without attachments and the longing for attachments. I thought the choice of a dove was also very appropriate for him in terms of this, as doves are often to be seen as good an pure, standing out here from the rest of the scene in the same way that the full moon might stand out from the night sky.