The farmer’s clothes are soaked through and never dried,
in the long May rains
that fall without cease,
from a sky with never a rift in the clouds.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
11th Century Japanese 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
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
untitled poem by Lady Izumi Shikibu
I go out of the darkness
Onto a road of darkness
Lit only by the far off
Moon on the edge of the mountains.
Kuraki yori
Kuraki michi ni zo
Itinu beki
Haruka ni terase
Yama no hi no tsuki
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
untitled poem by Lady Akazome Emon
I should not have waited.
It would have been better
To have slept and dreamed,
Than to have watched night pass,
And this slow moon sink.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
Untitled Poem by Lady Akazome Emon
I should not have waited.
It would have been better
To have slept and dreamed,
Than to have watched night pass,
And this slow moon sink.
Leonard Durso 