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           Ono no Komachi (b. 834)
 POEMS

POEM 1

Did he appear
because I fell asleep
thinking of him?
If only I'd known I was dreaming,
I'd never have wakened.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

 

POEM 2

The autumn night
is long only in name --
We've done no more
than gaze at each other
and it's already dawn.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

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POEM 3

His heart, grown cold,
has become my body's autumn.
Many sorrowful words
may yet fall
like the rustling leaves.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

 

POEM 4

I thought to pick
the flower of forgetting
for myself,
but I found it
already growing in his heart.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

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POEM 5

Those gifts you left
have become my enemies:
without them
there might have been
a moment's forgetting.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

Izumi Shikibu (974-1034)


POEM 6

Lying alone,
my black hair tangled,
uncombed,
I long for the one
who touched it first.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

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POEM 7

I think, "At least in my dreams
we'll be able to meet. . . ."
Moving my pillow
this way and that on the bed, completely
unable to sleep.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)


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POEM 8

Why haven't I
thought of it before?
This body,
remembering yours,
is the keepsake you left.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

 

POEM 9

To a man who used to visit secretly but asked to come now in daylight

There are many
strange and lovely things
that swim in the night tide pools. . . .
I think I do not want to share them
with other divers' eyes by day.

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)

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POEM 10
When I was thinking not to age any longer in this world,

I saw a small child

It is easy
to hate this painful world,
but how can I leave
a world
that includes this child?

(translated by Jane Hirshfield & Mariko Aratani)
 

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