Research Guides
Tateuchi East Asia Library (TEAL) received a significant donation on November 30, 2023, from Dr. Kenneth Pyle and Mrs. Anne Pyle, consisting of two remarkable scrolls, one featuring a poem by Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919), founder of Japan's first political party, and the other bearing the calligraphy of Itō Hirobumi (1841-1909), Japan’s first Prime Minister and author of the Meiji Constitution. Entrusted by their friend Miyaji Hiroshi (1925-2007), a distinguished professor at Middlebury College, these scrolls, cherished family heirlooms passed down through generations, were given to the Pyles with the intent of permanent preservation, leading them to donate the scrolls to TEAL. English translations provided by Professor Paul Atkins.
[落款] 一片冰心 [seal] “A piece of an icy heart”
我愛寒梅寂保真 I love the chilly plum blossom, solitary and true to its nature;
冰心不獨避紅塵 Its icy heart is not the only one that shuns the hustle and bustle.
一枝花信香千里 A bough of flowers send their fragrance a thousand miles,
隻手忽開天地春 A hand suddenly opens—in heaven and on earth it is spring!
[署名] 博文 [signed] —Hirobumi
[落款] 伊藤博文之章 [seal] Seal of Itō Hirobumi
[落款] 美酒飲交微醉後好花須看半開春
[seal] After drinking fine wine until the point of tipsiness, one should view lovely flowers when they have opened halfway.
Translated by Dr. Paul Atkins, Professor of Japanese in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle
[seal] 離路而得道 Leave the path and attain the way
半匹輕烟束翠󠄁山 Half a roll of silk: think mist binding the green hills.
一梳寒月印青天 A single comb: cold moon pressing against the blue sky.
生憎野焼無端春 I detest the way the meadow burns, surprised it is spring.
直上高梀香邊憎 Directly overhead, a lofty roof amid faraway haze.
八十八翁退助録之 - Inscribed by the old man Taisuke, age 83
[seal] 〇東南〇 [?]
[seal] 煙霞入抱 [?]
Translated by Dr. Paul Atkins, Professor of Japanese in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle