My heart, thinking
“How beautiful he is”
Is like a swift river
Which though one dams it and dams it
Will still break through.
translated by Arthur Waley
Japanese poet
from The Diary of the Waning Moon by The Nun Abutsu
Between the pines of the shore hills on the eastern road,
Even the waves rise in the image of flowers.
translated by Edwin O. Reischauer
from Climbing Kagu Hill by Yamabe No Akahito in the Man’yoshü
I would always pass
through Asuka’s ancient capital.
There the mountains are lofty
and the river’s flow is broad and grand.
Cranes soar wildly
through the morning clouds,
and frogs sing noisily
in the evening mist.
Each time I see it
I find myself in tears,
as my mind turns to the past.
translated by Ian Hideo Levy
“Forsaking the mists” by Lady Ise
Forsaking the mists
That rise in the spring,
Wild geese fly off.
They have learned to live
In a land without flowers.
translated by Geoffrey Bownas & Anthony Thwaite
untitled poem by Yosano Akiko
Come at last to this point
I look back on my passion
And realize that I
Have been like a blind man
Who is unafraid of the dark.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
untitled poem by Shami Mansei
This world of ours,
To what shall I compare it?
To the white wake of a boat
That rows away in the early dawn.
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
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
