Rexroth Kenneth - Written on the sky: poems from the Japanese

It is the time of rain and snow I spend sleepless nights And watch the frost Frail as your love Gather in the dawn. IZUMI SHIKIBU I think of the days Before I met her When I seemed to have No troubles at all. FUJIWARA NO ATSUTADA How long will it last? I do not know his heart. This morning my thoughts are as tangled with anxiety as my black hair. LADY HORIKAWA The mists rise over The still pools at Asuka. Memory does not Pass away so easily.

YAMABE NO AKAHITO On Asuka River Maple leaves are floating. On Mount Katsuragi, High upstream, they are Already falling from the trees. ANONYMOUS, MANYOSH If I were only sure I could live as long as I wanted to, I would not have to weep at parting from you. SHIROME Who knows that in the depth of the ravine of the mountain of my hidden heart a firefly of my love is aflame. ABUTSU-NI I can no longer tell dream from reality. Into what world shall I awake from this bewildering dream? AKAZOME EMON How beautiful the Buddhist statues At Saga Half hidden in falling leaves.

IMAIZUMI SOGETSU-NI The flowers whirl away In the wind like snow. The thing that falls away Is myself. PRIME MINISTER KINTSUNE Frozen in the ice A maple leaf. MASAOKA SHIKI The Spring nights Floating bridge of dreams Breaks off. The clouds banked Against the mountain peak Dissipate in the clear sky. FUJIWARA NO TEIKA The pillow that knows all wont tell, for it doesnt know, and dont you tell of our dream of a Spring night.

IZUMI SHIKIBU I went out in the Spring To gather the young herbs. So many petals were falling Drifting in confused flight That I lost my way. KI NO TSURAYUKI Others may forget you, but not I. I am haunted by your beautiful ghost. EMPRESS YAMATOHIME My hunter of dragonflies, How far has he wandered today? FUKUDA CHIYO-NI Will I cease to be, Or will I remember Beyond the world, Our last meeting together? IZUMI SHIKIBU Everyone is asleep There is nothing to come between the moon and me. ENOMOTO SEIFU-JO No, the human heart Is unknowable.

But in my birthplace The flowers still smell The same as always. Kl NO TSURAYUKI I was sure I would never get lost in the tangled roads of love. Now I have been caught in the karma of past lives. KENREI MON-IN UKY NO DAIBU The fireflies light. How easily it goes on How easily it goes out again. CHINE-JO I sit at home In our room By our bed Gazing at your pillow.

KAKINOMOTO NO HITOMARO I fell asleep thinking of him, and he came to me. If I had known it was only a dream I would never have awakened. ONO NO KOMACHI We were together Only a little while, And we believed our love Would last a thousand years. TOMO NO YAKAMOCHI That evening when You went away the two of Us wrote together On a pillar a poem About a white clover. YOSANO AKIKO Shall we stay in the House to make love, when over The grasses of Inami Moor There glows the moonfilled night? ANONYMOUS, MANYSH We dressed each other Hurrying to say farewell In the depth of night. Our drowsy thighs touched and we Were caught in bed by the dawn.

EMPRESS EIFUKU The white chrysanthemum Is disguised by the first frost. If I wanted to pick one I could find it only by chance. OSHIKOCHI NO MITSUNE Involuntary, I may live on In the passing world, Never forgetting This midnight moon. EMPEROR SANJ You say, I will come. And you do not come. Now you say, I will not come.

So I shall expect you. Have I learned to understand you? LADY TOMO NO SAKANOE Better never to have met you In my dream Than to wake and reach For hands that are not there. TOMO NO YAKAMOCHI Do not smile to yourself Like a green mountain With a cloud drifting across it. People will know we are in love. LADY TOMO NO SAKANOE How can I blame the cherry blossoms for rejecting this floating world and drifting away as the wind calls them? SHUNZEIS DAUGHTER