The flower’s color has passed,
I gazed on it in vain,
while trying to live my life.
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
Japanese poet
untitled poem 3 by Ono No Komachi
They change,
though you can’t see it
in the color of their faces–
these blossoms that are the hearts
of the people of this world
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
untitled poem 2 by Ono No Komachi
As certain as color
Passes from the petal,
Irrevocable as flesh,
The gazing eye falls through the world.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
untitled poem 1 by Ono No Komachi
Imperceptible
It withers in the world
This flower-like human heart.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
a tanka from the Manyoshu by Otomo Yakamochi
You, my love, have asked
if I heard the wild goose cry
though I’m sure you know
The wild goose that cried above
is hidden by distant clouds
translated by Harold Wright
tanka 2 by Ariwara No Narihira
Neither waking or sleeping,
I saw the night out,
and now spend
all day in thought,
staring at these long spring rains.
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
tanka 2 by Yosano Akiko
Spring is short:
Why ever should it
Be thought immortal?
I grope for
My full breasts with my hands.
translated by Geoffrey Bownas & Anthony Thwaite
tanka 1 by Yosano Akiko
No camellia
Not plum for me,
No flower that is white.
Peach blossom has a color
That does not ask my sins.
translated by Geoffrey Bownas & Anthony Thwaite
tanka 4 by Ono no Komachi
So lonely am I
My body is a floating weed
Severed at the roots
Were there water to entice me
I would follow it, I think.
translated by Donald Keene
tanka 3 by Ono no Komachi
This night of no moon
There is no way to meet him.
I rise in longing–
My breast pounds, a leaping flame,
My heart is consumed in fire.
translated by Donald Keene
Leonard Durso 