Now to meet only in dreams,
Bitterly seeking,
Starting from sleep,
Groping in the dark,
With hands that touch nothing.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
poem by Ötomo no Yakamochi
I will come to you
Through the ford at Saho,
The plovers piping about me
As my horse wades
The clear water.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
in a cornfield
so long ago
the cry of crickets
in a cornfield
while on a backseat
of a car
love dies
poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Steeper and steeper.
I know she thinks of me, far off,
And wilts with longing, like summer grass.
Maybe if the mountains would bow down
I could see her again,
Standing in our doorway.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
poem by The Empress Yözei
Falling from the ridge
Of high Tsukuba,
The Minano River
At last gathers itself,
Like my love, into
A deep, still pool.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
from a line by Ki No Tomoneri: this unquiet heart: for one unnamed
in your eyes
sorrow dissolves
from this unquiet heart
the dust from one’s eyes: for John C
I long for the mountains
of 8th Century China
where one could go
to wash the dust
from one’s eyes
unfortunately now
those mountains are gone
and the dust has caked
and made us blind
poem by Ki No Tomonori
In the eternal
Light of the spring day
The flowers fall away
Like the unquiet heart.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
poem by The Priest Sarumaru
Deep in the mountain,
Trampling the red maple leaves,
I hear the stag cry out
In the sorrow of Autumn.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
poem 2 by Ariwara No Narihari
This is not the moon,
Nor is this the spring,
Of other springs,
And I alone
Am still the same.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
Leonard Durso 