Japanese Poetry - Tumblr Posts

"The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" Japanese novelist "Natsume Soseki" wrote this phrase "the moon is beautiful" to express the love and that's equivalent to "I Love You" in Japanese.

— ONO NO KOMACHI (834?–?)

ONO NO KOMACHI

小野小町・ono no komachi

— from the ink dark moon

(t. jane hirshfield with mariko aratani)

Kazuko Shiraishi, tr. by Ikuko Atsumi, from Seasons of Sacred Lust; "Spring"

Fuyugare no

Nobe to waga mi wo

Omoiseba

Moede mo haru wo

Matashimono wo

- Ise

If I consider my body like the fields withered by winter, can I hope, though I am burnt, that spring will come again?

KOKINSHUU (collection of ancient and modern poems)