Ki no Tsurayuki

“The songs of Japan take the human heart as their seed and flourish as myriad leaves of words. As long as they are alive to this world, the cares and deeds of men and women are endless, so they speak of things they hear and see, giving words to the feelings in their hearts. Hearing the cries of the warbler among the blossoms or the calls of the frog that lives in the waters, how can we doubt that every living creature sing its song? Not using force, it moves heaven and earth, makes even the unseen spirits and gods feel pity, smoothes the bonds between man and woman, and consoles the hearts of fierce warriors-such a thing is poetry.”
― Ki No Tsurayuki, Anthology of Japanese Literature: From the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century

“Once again 'the passenger' spoke, lamenting that (the voyage) had lasted into this month, and for the many hardships they had endured, to which the others agreed. Out of the fullness of his heart he recited this: Though the days in spring Grow as long as is the rope Used to tow our boat, Forty days we've spent,—maybe Fifty days upon the sea. People who hear this will say to themselves that this kind of stuff is very poor. But the passenger produced it with a good deal of difficulty and thought it pretty good; so they should stop whispering such cruel things about it.”
― Ki no Tsurayuki, Tosa Diary