Priest Kisen
- Period: Heian Period
- Occupation: Waka Poet, Monk
- Family:
- Birth: mid 9th Century
- Death: –
Priest Kisen
Priest Kisen (喜撰) was a Buddhist monk and Japanese poet living around the mid 9th century. Sadly not much is known about him other than he lived in the area of Uji and according to the Kokinshū his dictation was vague and that his poems lacked structure.
The only othe thing we know is that he is said to have written the Kisen shiki, although this is very dubious.
He is listed as on the 6 Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems (No. 8) can be found in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu and goes as follows:1
| Japanese text2 | Romanized Japanese1 | English translation1 |
|---|---|---|
| わが庵は 都のたつみ しかぞすむ 世をうぢ山と 人はいふなり | Waga io wa miyako no tatsumi shika zo sumu yo o Ujiyama to hito wa iu nari | I live alone in a simple hut South-east of the capital, But people speak of me as one Who fled the sorrows of the world Only to end up on the Hill of Sorrow. |
Footnotes
1. MacMillan, P. (2018) ”One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse”. St. Ives: Penguin Classics.
2. Suzuki, H. et al. (1997) ”Genshoku: Ogura Hyakunin Isshu”. Tokyo: Bun’eidō.
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