The white chrysanthemum
Is disguised by the first frost.
If I wanted to pick one
I could find it only by chance.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
9th Century Japanese poetry
poem by Ono no Komachi
Without changing color
in the emptiness
of this world of ours,
the heart of man
fades like a flower.
translated by Kennerth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi
tanka 3 by Ono No Komachi
Every time I dozed off
and met the one I long for,
I’ve begun to count on
these things called dreams.
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
tanka 2 by Ono No Komachi
What do you tell me now,
I who grow old
in this rain of tears?
Your words, like the leaves,
have changed their hue.
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
a tanka by Ono No Komachi
My thoughts of you are endless,
and now that night has come
I’ll visit you by dream paths—
they can’t blame me for that.
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
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
untitled poem by Fujiwara No Yoshifusa
The years have touched me.
I worry that I grow frail with age.
But I only need to see
Your flower like beauty
For all anxiety and heaviness
To leave me.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
On a birthday by Ariwara no Narihira
Cherry blossoms,
scatter and hide it,
that road they say
old age comes by–
make him lose his way!
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
On Nunobiki Waterfall by Ariwara no Narihari
Someone must be
unstringing them wildly–
white beads shower down
without pause,
my sleeves too narrow to catch them
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
anonymous tanka 12 from The Kokinshu
If I’d known
it was old age calling,
I’d have locked the door,
said “No one home!”
and refused to see him.
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
Leonard Durso 