This small plaque sits unassumingly on a corner in front of a flower shop, less than a block away from the main entrance of the Pike Place Market in Seattle.
The plaque reads:”I have always known that at last I would take this road. But yesterday I did not know it would be today.”
This poem was written by Ariwara no Narihira (825-880), one of the most notable poets of the Heian period of Japanese literature and poetry. It was published in a volume called Kokinshū, the first known anthology of Japanese poetry.
Known for both his poetry and his romantic exploits, Narihira was born into nobility as the grandson of an emperor. While his poetry is relatively well-known in Japan, it was not widespread in the West it was included in several translated compendiums in the 1950s, including the notable book 100 Poems from the Japanese by Kenneth Rexroth.