Tell me, what’s more dear,
Silver, gold, gem or brocade?
What else do you hear?
Nothing e’er would take the place
Of the treasure called babies!
(Vol.5-803)

As I touched upon elsewhere about this poet, Okura, he tends to give more attention to
family life, family tie, poverty and hardships of different kinds that may be involved
in the ordinary life of ordinary people. He is off the ordinary course of poem-making in
these eras (7th – 8th centuries) in that many other poets are “court-poets”, tending to give
praise to the prosperity of the Imperial Household that to which they serve, the sheer
beauty of the nature and seasonal phenomena such as snow and forage.
Okura tends to watch people’s life directly and open-heartedly, yet with deep sympathy (introspective sympathy for his own life inclusive!).

I used the word “babies” instead of “children” here, in a mental association with the old
expression “Kodakara ni megumareru” (Endowed with a treasure of a new baby).
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