My friend, hold back your heart from enemies,
Drink shining wine with handsome friends like these;
With art’s initiates undo your collar–
Stay buttoned up with ignoramuses.
translated by Dick Davis
poetry
untitled poem by Akazome Emon
I can no longer tell dream from reality.
Into what world shall I awake
from this bewildering dream?
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
and again Yosano Akiko
My heart is like the sun,
drowned darkness,
soaked with rain,
beaten by the winds.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
one more untitled poem by Yosano Akiko
Sweet and sad
like love overwhelmed
with long sighs,
out of the depths of the willow
little by little
the moon appears.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
another untitled poem by Yosano Akiko
Purple butterflies
fly at night through my dreams.
Butterflies, tell me,
have you seen in my village
the falling flowers of the wisteria?
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
untitled poem by Yosano Akiko
I have the delusion
that you are with me
as I walk through the fields
of flowers, under the moon.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
untitled poem by Ise Tayu
Unable to sleep
I gaze at the flowers of the bush clover,
as the dew forms on them from the long night,
till suddenly before dawn
they are scattered by the wind.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
from Steady Rain, Drinking Alone by T’ao Ch’ien
in this body long since lost to change,
my thoughts remain, quite silent after all.
translated by David Hinton
Poking Fun at My White Hair by Wang An-shih
Long since afraid of tumbling like windblown thistledown
away, you hide in your cap, never dare leave. Spring wind
scatters you away, but never lasts long. And even thin,
flare incandescent beneath bright moon and stars and stars.
translated by David Hinton
White Hair’s Answer by Wang An-shih
Old age brings white hair. Heaven’s loom of origins works
like that. People never denounce summer’s endless green:
they love spring blossoms and those long days that follow.
But soon autumn leaves fall, and did ancients outlive that?
translated by David Hinton
Leonard Durso 