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Translations of selected Japanese poems by women of the ancient court of Japan are accompanied by explanatory notes..Title: .The Ink Dark Moon..Author: .Hirshfield, Jane (EDT)/ Arantani, Mariko/ Hirshfield, Jane..Publisher: .Random House Inc..Publication Date: .1990/10/01..Number of Pages: .212..Binding Type: .PAPERBACK..Library of Congress: .90050154
155 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1988
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About the author
Ono no Komachi
8?books36?followersOno no Komachi (小野 小町?, c. 825 – c. 900) was a Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen — the six best waka poets of the early Heian period. She was renowned for her unusual beauty, and Komachi is today a synonym for feminine beauty in Japan.[1] She also counts among the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals.
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July 26, 2017
Japanese poetry is said to be originated in human heart and mind and grows in to the myriad leaves of words. The collection of poems The Ink Dark Moon is from the Heian era of Japanese literature, the era is considered as Golden Age in the history of Japanese literature. The language in that era was very inflected language- grammatical constructions are often contained within the words themselves, usually in their endings as in Latin, English on the other hand is partially inflected language so the linguistic structural differences in both the languages affect sound qualities- both within words and in the way sound functions in poetry.
In Japan's imperial Heian Court, female poets had a voice and could establish a reputation for themselves in literary circles. It was a culture that valued the art, the antithesis of present day America. Matters of the heart and spirit and the transient nature of time and existence are the dominant themes of this collection of love poems by two leading female literary figures of Japan's Heian era. Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu lived in an age when (surprisingly) women authors were predominant figures, it is Japan’s Heian era which lasted till 1185 A.D.
During the Heian era, most of the poets endeavored to bring art to everyday communication but only a few truly excelled acquiring extraordinary prestige and charisma. Ono no Komachi became a subject of legend from the time of her death. Legends, folktales and songs add that Komachi was not only outstanding woman poet of her time but also the most beautiful and desirable of women. Ono no Komachi served at imperial court in the capital city of Heian-kyo (Kyoto nowadays), she had developed a form of poetry which is deeply subjective, passionate, and complex, helped to usher in a poetic age of philosophical and emotional depth.
Izumi Shikibu created her space in the poetic sphere of Japanese art during the time of the court culture’s greatest flowering; she married twice and was the lover of both Prince Tametaka and Prince Atsumichi, Tametaka’s brother. Her poems and correspondence, part of a tradition of court love poetry, frequently combine erotic and romantic longings with Buddhist contemplation. In her famous Diary, a mixture of poetry and prose, Shikibu recounts the beginning of their love, through the time when Astumichi persuaded her to move into his compound despite the unusually vigorous protestations and eventual departure of his primary wife. Later, after Astumichi’s death in an epidemic ended the central relationship of Shibiku’s life, during the period of mourning she wrote over 240 poems to her departed lover.
These two women, the first a pivotal figure who became legendary in Japanese literary history, the second Japan’s major woman poet, illuminated certain areas of human experience with a beauty, truthfulness, and compression unsurpassed in the literature of other age. Both authors were not only deeply passionate but also intensely religious; an inquiry in to the deeper questions of life runs through the core of each woman’s work. Influence of Buddhism could be clearly seen in the works of both woman authors, Buddhist view of existence as ceaseless change and return again and again to the question of what in our experience can be called real.
In the culture of Heian court, the ability to write poems of great beauty would in itself have been a major cause for being thought both personally attractive and desirable. The aesthetic sensibility, displayed by both authors, was major cause of establishing their distinction among the members of court, the subtle skills shown by both leading poets in mixing of incense, music, painting, dance, use of kimonos, and their poetry mattered greatly in their appeal as prospective official advancements and as romantic partners to princes. Although male authors composed a great part of their works in Chinese which served as the official form of communication in government and scholarly discourse in much the way that Latin functioned in European courts and centers of learning in the Middle ages; women, on the other hand, were only allowed to create literature near the end of eighth century during a time when an altogether different system is devised- in which Chinese characters were used phonetically to transcribe spoken Japanese. Women during that period got free from the shackles of male dominance and devoted themselves to develop their literary potential to the highest degree in the poems, diaries, and tales in which they recorded both the public and the most private and deeply felt aspects of their lives.
This entangling wind
Is just like
Last autumn’s gusts.
Only the dew of tears
On my sleeve is new.
The poetry of both authors in the collection is primarily concerned with human emotions- emotions in general like thoughts occur in one’s mind on observing natural world as such a nightingale singing among blossoms and air blowing through leaves, religion, the wild spirit present in human beings even after becoming ‘civilized and which human beings have been trying to tame since then; and most importantly the complex relationship between men and women is principal theme of the collection.
Ono no Komachi
Is this love reality
Or a dream?
I cannot know,
When both reality and dreams
Exist without truly existing.
Izumi Shikibu
In this world
Love has no color-
Yet how deeply my body
Is stained by yours.
The dewdrop
On a bamboo leaf
Stays longer
Than you, who vanish
At dawn.
I used up this body
Longing
For one who does not come.
A deep valley, now,
What once was my heart.
The pleasure one finds in reading these poems is discovering the way that, for both these woman authors, the metaphysics of religious teaching and the tumultuous course of the heart in love confirm a single truth, impermanence of being; their effort to accept and understand this unavoidable transience profoundly illuminates their work. The traces of anguish and angst towards life and the relationships of human beings are very evident in most of the poems from this collection- here poetry is filled with philosophical impressions, longings and desires of human nature in way that all this come out as a highly refined example of tragic beauty.
Ono no Komachi
It seems a time has come
When you’ve become like those horses
Wild with spring
Who long for distant fields
Where the light mists rise.
In this world
The living grow fewer,
The dead increase-
How much longer must I
Carry this body of grief?
Izumi Shikibu
Summer night,
A rap at the gate,
A rap at the door….
How hope answers
The water rail’s knock.
An answer
Through the years
I’ve become used to sorrow:
There was not one spring
I didn’t leave behind
The flowers.
Another answer
Do you not know
This world is a walking dream?
However much I once needed you,
That is also a fleeting thing…..
Overall, it is a sweet little experience which touched the chords of heart with the beauty possessed in the words and left the heart wounded from the tragedy hidden behind the charismatic arrangements of words and deep ridden in the heart of authors, the tinge of pain one feels after going through the leaves of the book left one wondering and contemplating about the lives and the circumstances in the lives of both the authors, and in effect left the reader unsatiated and longing to read/ know more about their lives. It’s a great collection and the fact, that these highly refined texts written by women during the era when society was highly patriarchal and misogynist- wherein the male dominance in art is nonchalantly challenged and even surpassed, makes it all the more greater. I would highly recommend this Vintage edition which has a very comprehensive introduction and quite an informative appendix to this collection.
In Japan's imperial Heian Court, female poets had a voice and could establish a reputation for themselves in literary circles. It was a culture that valued the art, the antithesis of present day America. Matters of the heart and spirit and the transient nature of time and existence are the dominant themes of this collection of love poems by two leading female literary figures of Japan's Heian era. Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu lived in an age when (surprisingly) women authors were predominant figures, it is Japan’s Heian era which lasted till 1185 A.D.
During the Heian era, most of the poets endeavored to bring art to everyday communication but only a few truly excelled acquiring extraordinary prestige and charisma. Ono no Komachi became a subject of legend from the time of her death. Legends, folktales and songs add that Komachi was not only outstanding woman poet of her time but also the most beautiful and desirable of women. Ono no Komachi served at imperial court in the capital city of Heian-kyo (Kyoto nowadays), she had developed a form of poetry which is deeply subjective, passionate, and complex, helped to usher in a poetic age of philosophical and emotional depth.
Izumi Shikibu created her space in the poetic sphere of Japanese art during the time of the court culture’s greatest flowering; she married twice and was the lover of both Prince Tametaka and Prince Atsumichi, Tametaka’s brother. Her poems and correspondence, part of a tradition of court love poetry, frequently combine erotic and romantic longings with Buddhist contemplation. In her famous Diary, a mixture of poetry and prose, Shikibu recounts the beginning of their love, through the time when Astumichi persuaded her to move into his compound despite the unusually vigorous protestations and eventual departure of his primary wife. Later, after Astumichi’s death in an epidemic ended the central relationship of Shibiku’s life, during the period of mourning she wrote over 240 poems to her departed lover.
These two women, the first a pivotal figure who became legendary in Japanese literary history, the second Japan’s major woman poet, illuminated certain areas of human experience with a beauty, truthfulness, and compression unsurpassed in the literature of other age. Both authors were not only deeply passionate but also intensely religious; an inquiry in to the deeper questions of life runs through the core of each woman’s work. Influence of Buddhism could be clearly seen in the works of both woman authors, Buddhist view of existence as ceaseless change and return again and again to the question of what in our experience can be called real.
In the culture of Heian court, the ability to write poems of great beauty would in itself have been a major cause for being thought both personally attractive and desirable. The aesthetic sensibility, displayed by both authors, was major cause of establishing their distinction among the members of court, the subtle skills shown by both leading poets in mixing of incense, music, painting, dance, use of kimonos, and their poetry mattered greatly in their appeal as prospective official advancements and as romantic partners to princes. Although male authors composed a great part of their works in Chinese which served as the official form of communication in government and scholarly discourse in much the way that Latin functioned in European courts and centers of learning in the Middle ages; women, on the other hand, were only allowed to create literature near the end of eighth century during a time when an altogether different system is devised- in which Chinese characters were used phonetically to transcribe spoken Japanese. Women during that period got free from the shackles of male dominance and devoted themselves to develop their literary potential to the highest degree in the poems, diaries, and tales in which they recorded both the public and the most private and deeply felt aspects of their lives.
This entangling wind
Is just like
Last autumn’s gusts.
Only the dew of tears
On my sleeve is new.
The poetry of both authors in the collection is primarily concerned with human emotions- emotions in general like thoughts occur in one’s mind on observing natural world as such a nightingale singing among blossoms and air blowing through leaves, religion, the wild spirit present in human beings even after becoming ‘civilized and which human beings have been trying to tame since then; and most importantly the complex relationship between men and women is principal theme of the collection.
Ono no Komachi
Is this love reality
Or a dream?
I cannot know,
When both reality and dreams
Exist without truly existing.
Izumi Shikibu
In this world
Love has no color-
Yet how deeply my body
Is stained by yours.
The dewdrop
On a bamboo leaf
Stays longer
Than you, who vanish
At dawn.
I used up this body
Longing
For one who does not come.
A deep valley, now,
What once was my heart.
The pleasure one finds in reading these poems is discovering the way that, for both these woman authors, the metaphysics of religious teaching and the tumultuous course of the heart in love confirm a single truth, impermanence of being; their effort to accept and understand this unavoidable transience profoundly illuminates their work. The traces of anguish and angst towards life and the relationships of human beings are very evident in most of the poems from this collection- here poetry is filled with philosophical impressions, longings and desires of human nature in way that all this come out as a highly refined example of tragic beauty.
Ono no Komachi
It seems a time has come
When you’ve become like those horses
Wild with spring
Who long for distant fields
Where the light mists rise.
In this world
The living grow fewer,
The dead increase-
How much longer must I
Carry this body of grief?
Izumi Shikibu
Summer night,
A rap at the gate,
A rap at the door….
How hope answers
The water rail’s knock.
An answer
Through the years
I’ve become used to sorrow:
There was not one spring
I didn’t leave behind
The flowers.
Another answer
Do you not know
This world is a walking dream?
However much I once needed you,
That is also a fleeting thing…..
Overall, it is a sweet little experience which touched the chords of heart with the beauty possessed in the words and left the heart wounded from the tragedy hidden behind the charismatic arrangements of words and deep ridden in the heart of authors, the tinge of pain one feels after going through the leaves of the book left one wondering and contemplating about the lives and the circumstances in the lives of both the authors, and in effect left the reader unsatiated and longing to read/ know more about their lives. It’s a great collection and the fact, that these highly refined texts written by women during the era when society was highly patriarchal and misogynist- wherein the male dominance in art is nonchalantly challenged and even surpassed, makes it all the more greater. I would highly recommend this Vintage edition which has a very comprehensive introduction and quite an informative appendix to this collection.
November 13, 2021
Love, Japanese Style. Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, two of Heian Japan’s celebrated female poets, wrote extensively on the subject of love. I prefer Japanese poetry on Buddhist subjects, yet the love poems in The Ink Dark Moon pleased me more than expected.
Some of the poems do express Buddhist ideas and that should not surprise me. Is there any reason to believe romance and religion are mutually exclusive? Have I forgotten the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of mono no aware ~ appreciation for the melancholy beauty of transient things?
Ono no Komachi won me over with several poems that have dreaming as their theme. Dreaming is a frequent theme in my own writing and I am drawn to it in the books I read. In my favorite Komachi poem, she uses dreams to represent the Buddhist theme of the world as illusion.
“Is this love reality
or a dream?
I cannot know,
when both reality and dreams
exist without truly existing” (14).
Some of the poems of Izumi Shikibu also combine Buddhist ideas with personal romantic feelings, but the Izumi poem that most moves me is one of the hundreds of poems she wrote when she was in mourning for her dead lover, Prince Atsumichi.
“A friend, hearing I was in mourning, asked the cause of my grief
If I say
this or that,
how ordinary grief becomes—
broken cries are the words
that sorrow’s voice demands” (149).
Indeed. There are no words that will not diminish such an experience. Never before have I heard this stated so perfectly.
The poems in The Ink Dark Moon are poems of moonlight and plum blossoms, of romantic trysts and lovelorn hearts, but there is also real depth to them. In harmony with the Buddhist belief in the Oneness of all things, the pleasures of love are not separate from the beauty of nature, the weariness of old age, and the sorrow of death. Surely this is why I find them so satisfying.
Some of the poems do express Buddhist ideas and that should not surprise me. Is there any reason to believe romance and religion are mutually exclusive? Have I forgotten the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of mono no aware ~ appreciation for the melancholy beauty of transient things?
Ono no Komachi won me over with several poems that have dreaming as their theme. Dreaming is a frequent theme in my own writing and I am drawn to it in the books I read. In my favorite Komachi poem, she uses dreams to represent the Buddhist theme of the world as illusion.
“Is this love reality
or a dream?
I cannot know,
when both reality and dreams
exist without truly existing” (14).
Some of the poems of Izumi Shikibu also combine Buddhist ideas with personal romantic feelings, but the Izumi poem that most moves me is one of the hundreds of poems she wrote when she was in mourning for her dead lover, Prince Atsumichi.
“A friend, hearing I was in mourning, asked the cause of my grief
If I say
this or that,
how ordinary grief becomes—
broken cries are the words
that sorrow’s voice demands” (149).
Indeed. There are no words that will not diminish such an experience. Never before have I heard this stated so perfectly.
The poems in The Ink Dark Moon are poems of moonlight and plum blossoms, of romantic trysts and lovelorn hearts, but there is also real depth to them. In harmony with the Buddhist belief in the Oneness of all things, the pleasures of love are not separate from the beauty of nature, the weariness of old age, and the sorrow of death. Surely this is why I find them so satisfying.
November 17, 2024
Some of my favorites:
My longing for you—
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams.
*
A diver does not abandon
a seaweed-filled bay.…
Will you then turn away
from this floating, sea-foam body
that waits for your gathering hands?
*
The autumn night
is long only in name—
We’ve done no more
than gaze at each other
and it’s already dawn.
*
Lying alone,
my black hair tangled,
uncombed,
I long for the one
who touched it first.
*
Even if I now saw you
only once,
I would long for you
through worlds,
worlds.
My longing for you—
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams.
*
A diver does not abandon
a seaweed-filled bay.…
Will you then turn away
from this floating, sea-foam body
that waits for your gathering hands?
*
The autumn night
is long only in name—
We’ve done no more
than gaze at each other
and it’s already dawn.
*
Lying alone,
my black hair tangled,
uncombed,
I long for the one
who touched it first.
*
Even if I now saw you
only once,
I would long for you
through worlds,
worlds.
June 9, 2017
Moon and the solitude of lovers, Izumi Shikibu, Ono no komachi
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?? ?????? ??? ? ????? ???? ?? ??? ????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ??????: ??????? ? ??????. ?? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ?? 17 ????? ???? ????? ??? ???. ????? ????? ? ???????? ????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ? ??? ????: ?????? ??? ????? ?? ????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ???? ?? ?? 31 ????? ?????? ??? ???? ? ?? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ? ???? ?? ????? ??? ????? ? ???????? ??????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ???? ???
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September 18, 2015
Why would an English-speaking person want to read Japanese poems translated into English? Is it enjoyable?
I was curious about this and found this book at my local library. It is an anthology of Japanese style poems (waka/tanka) by two Heian period (794 - 1185 or 1192) female poets, Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. I know the original poems are 5 stars; I'm taking 1 star off because I think the presentation can be improved.
Waka follows a syllabic pattern of 5-7-5, 7-7. (Please see the example below.) It is a short poem. The book presents one poem per page (English translation alone), then there are notes in the back. I don't like this presentation, which forces me to flip back and forth in the book. The original poem in Japanese, its romanized presentation, the English translation, and some notes can all fit in neatly on one page. (Why include the Japanese? Well, if nothing else, to intrigue your interest.)
Ono no Komachi lived in the 9th century. Little is known about her life, but she is supposed to be one of the most beautiful women in Japanese history. There is also a legend that she rejected all suitors. The reason is unknown--some legend speculates that her genitals were deformed. Dirty legend.
We know a lot more about Izumi Shikibu, who lived around 1000, because she left a diary. (I wish this was translated into English--many of the poems in this book come from this diary, but the prose part of her diary is quite interesting, too.) She was a contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu, author of . Murasaki also wrote about Izumi in her diary. She didn't approve of Izumi's promiscuity and her overly emotional (in Murasaki's view, that is) poems. Well. (Today, we tend to remember Izumi as a wonderfully expressive poet and Murasaki as a brilliant novelist.)
Before I wrap up this review with one of Izumi's poems, allow me to complain about the cover art, too. It's a beautiful picture, but it's from the 19th century. This book is about two Heian period women. Can't we have a picture of Heian period? had it right on his translation of The Tale Of Genji.
So, here is one of Izumi's famous poem and the translation in this book:
黒髪の乱れも知らずうち卧せば まづかきやりし人ぞ恋しき
kurokami no
midare mo shirazu
uchihuseba
mazu kakiyarishi
hito zo koishiki
Lying alone,
my black hair tangled,
uncombed,
I long for the one
who touched it first.
Hmm. So they interpret "mazu" as "first." I'd like to take the other meaning of the word because I don't think Izumi numbered her lovers.
Here is my translation, just for fun:
I care not
how my hair is messed
as I look down,
I only miss the man
who quickly noticed my distress and caressed it.
Oh, talking about the hair, I think the title of this anthology might as well be "The Long Dark Hair". Hair was the pride of Heian women, and some had it longer than their height.
And to answer the initial question: Humans are humans everywhere in any historical time. We haven't changed much. Great poetry, and literature, speaks to us all, and if you don't mind the slight awkwardness of translation, you can widen your range of enjoyment.
I was curious about this and found this book at my local library. It is an anthology of Japanese style poems (waka/tanka) by two Heian period (794 - 1185 or 1192) female poets, Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. I know the original poems are 5 stars; I'm taking 1 star off because I think the presentation can be improved.
Waka follows a syllabic pattern of 5-7-5, 7-7. (Please see the example below.) It is a short poem. The book presents one poem per page (English translation alone), then there are notes in the back. I don't like this presentation, which forces me to flip back and forth in the book. The original poem in Japanese, its romanized presentation, the English translation, and some notes can all fit in neatly on one page. (Why include the Japanese? Well, if nothing else, to intrigue your interest.)
Ono no Komachi lived in the 9th century. Little is known about her life, but she is supposed to be one of the most beautiful women in Japanese history. There is also a legend that she rejected all suitors. The reason is unknown--some legend speculates that her genitals were deformed. Dirty legend.
We know a lot more about Izumi Shikibu, who lived around 1000, because she left a diary. (I wish this was translated into English--many of the poems in this book come from this diary, but the prose part of her diary is quite interesting, too.) She was a contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu, author of . Murasaki also wrote about Izumi in her diary. She didn't approve of Izumi's promiscuity and her overly emotional (in Murasaki's view, that is) poems. Well. (Today, we tend to remember Izumi as a wonderfully expressive poet and Murasaki as a brilliant novelist.)
Before I wrap up this review with one of Izumi's poems, allow me to complain about the cover art, too. It's a beautiful picture, but it's from the 19th century. This book is about two Heian period women. Can't we have a picture of Heian period? had it right on his translation of The Tale Of Genji.
So, here is one of Izumi's famous poem and the translation in this book:
黒髪の乱れも知らずうち卧せば まづかきやりし人ぞ恋しき
kurokami no
midare mo shirazu
uchihuseba
mazu kakiyarishi
hito zo koishiki
Lying alone,
my black hair tangled,
uncombed,
I long for the one
who touched it first.
Hmm. So they interpret "mazu" as "first." I'd like to take the other meaning of the word because I don't think Izumi numbered her lovers.
Here is my translation, just for fun:
I care not
how my hair is messed
as I look down,
I only miss the man
who quickly noticed my distress and caressed it.
Oh, talking about the hair, I think the title of this anthology might as well be "The Long Dark Hair". Hair was the pride of Heian women, and some had it longer than their height.
And to answer the initial question: Humans are humans everywhere in any historical time. We haven't changed much. Great poetry, and literature, speaks to us all, and if you don't mind the slight awkwardness of translation, you can widen your range of enjoyment.
January 25, 2022
My longing for you—
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams.
*
Night deepens
with the sound
of a calling deer,
and I hear
my own one-sided love.
*
The cicadas sing
in the twilight
of my mountain village—
tonight, no one
will visit save the wind.
*
Is this love reality
or a dream?
I cannot know,
when both reality and dreams
exist without truly existing.
—Ono no Komachi
I think I will not go out again
on your drifting boat
that floats
in any direction
without ever setting a course.
*
Tonight,
with no one to wait for,
why do my thoughts
deepen
along with the twilight?
*
What is it
about this twilight hour?
Even the sound
of a barely perceptible breeze
pierces the heart.
*
If you had
only stayed away
when I first missed you,
I might have forgotten
by now!
— Izumi Shikibu
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams.
*
Night deepens
with the sound
of a calling deer,
and I hear
my own one-sided love.
*
The cicadas sing
in the twilight
of my mountain village—
tonight, no one
will visit save the wind.
*
Is this love reality
or a dream?
I cannot know,
when both reality and dreams
exist without truly existing.
—Ono no Komachi
I think I will not go out again
on your drifting boat
that floats
in any direction
without ever setting a course.
*
Tonight,
with no one to wait for,
why do my thoughts
deepen
along with the twilight?
*
What is it
about this twilight hour?
Even the sound
of a barely perceptible breeze
pierces the heart.
*
If you had
only stayed away
when I first missed you,
I might have forgotten
by now!
— Izumi Shikibu
April 10, 2024
I spent two days trying to recall where I’d first encountered the name Ono no Komachi, one of the two poets of this poetry collection, before. Then finally after I had grown weary with frustration, as it tends to happen, I did what I had avoided while hoping that memory would do its work, and I looked up the writer and rediscovered the kusōzu paintings. A series of nine paintings portraying “the death of a noble lady and the decay of the body” I had read about and seen a few years ago when I first learned of the Buddhist teachings on impermanence.
The aim of the paintings, believed to have been done during 18th century Japan, showing the different levels of the decomposition of the flesh in their unsightliness, is the transience of all things. That nothing is permanent and all things come to an end. The paintings are graphic (not extremely though) and direct, as religious depictions with a message usually are, and so I won't be sharing them here, but they're easily accessible on the internet for the curious.
While the poems collected here are influenced by the same Buddhist teachings of transience as the paintings, they're certainly subtler and prettier. For instance, from Ono no Komachi:
How sad,
to think I will end
as only
a pale green mist
drifting the far fields
And from Izumi Shikibu, written when mourning the death of her daughter:
Why did you vanish
into empty sky?
Even the fragile snow,
when it falls,
falls in this world.
Both instances alluding to the process of cremation after death. As well as the impermanence of life.
Most of the poems in this volume, collected and translated wonderfully by Jane Hirschfield, are about love and the passion and longing it causes.
Komachi:
How sad that I hope
to see you even now,
after my life has emptied itself
like this stalk of grain
into the autumn wind.
Shikibu:
In this world
love has no color—
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours
Also by Shikibu:
Seeing you is the thread
that ties me to this life—
if that knot
were cut this moment,
I’d have no regret.
Yesterday,
what were my reasons
for sighing?
This morning,
love is more painful still.
Wishing to see him,
to be seen by him—
if only he
were the mirror
I face each morning.
Sleeplessly
I watch over
the spring night—
but no amount of guarding
is enough to make it stay.
Reading the poems often brought to mind this Anne Carson quote I discovered recently: “The experience of eros is a study in the ambiguities of time. Lovers are always waiting. They hate to wait; they love to wait. Wedged between these two feelings, lovers come to think a great deal about time, and to understand it very well, in their perverse way.” True to this, the lovers here are in such intimate terms with time, always biding their time, mourning its loss, and breaking it down to the times of day: morning and night–in the yearning of night and departure of the lover that follows morning, and the seasons–especially spring.
That as well as the impatience, frustration, despair, and sweet longing, all caused by the yearning to love and be loved, just as palpable in the lover today as they were rendered so honestly and beautifully by these poets a millennium ago.
Finally, striking too are the two last poems by both Komachi and Shikibu. Both alluding to their deaths, and Shikibu’s believed to be written while on her deathbed.
碍辞尘补肠丑颈’蝉:
This body
grown fragile, floating,
a reed cut from its roots…
If a stream would ask me
to follow, I’d go, I think
While watching
the long rains falling on this
world
my heart, too, fades
with the unseen color
of the spring flowers.
How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart.
In this world the living grow fewer,
the dead increase—
how much longer must I
carry this body of grief?
This abandoned house
shining
in the mountain village—
how many nights
has the autumn moon spent
here?
厂丑颈办颈产耻’蝉:
The way I must enter
leads through darkness to dark
苍别蝉蝉—
O moon above the mountains’
rim,
please shine a little further
on my path.
What else can I say? These poems are magnificent.
The aim of the paintings, believed to have been done during 18th century Japan, showing the different levels of the decomposition of the flesh in their unsightliness, is the transience of all things. That nothing is permanent and all things come to an end. The paintings are graphic (not extremely though) and direct, as religious depictions with a message usually are, and so I won't be sharing them here, but they're easily accessible on the internet for the curious.
While the poems collected here are influenced by the same Buddhist teachings of transience as the paintings, they're certainly subtler and prettier. For instance, from Ono no Komachi:
How sad,
to think I will end
as only
a pale green mist
drifting the far fields
And from Izumi Shikibu, written when mourning the death of her daughter:
Why did you vanish
into empty sky?
Even the fragile snow,
when it falls,
falls in this world.
Both instances alluding to the process of cremation after death. As well as the impermanence of life.
Most of the poems in this volume, collected and translated wonderfully by Jane Hirschfield, are about love and the passion and longing it causes.
Komachi:
How sad that I hope
to see you even now,
after my life has emptied itself
like this stalk of grain
into the autumn wind.
Shikibu:
In this world
love has no color—
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours
Also by Shikibu:
Seeing you is the thread
that ties me to this life—
if that knot
were cut this moment,
I’d have no regret.
Yesterday,
what were my reasons
for sighing?
This morning,
love is more painful still.
Wishing to see him,
to be seen by him—
if only he
were the mirror
I face each morning.
Sleeplessly
I watch over
the spring night—
but no amount of guarding
is enough to make it stay.
Reading the poems often brought to mind this Anne Carson quote I discovered recently: “The experience of eros is a study in the ambiguities of time. Lovers are always waiting. They hate to wait; they love to wait. Wedged between these two feelings, lovers come to think a great deal about time, and to understand it very well, in their perverse way.” True to this, the lovers here are in such intimate terms with time, always biding their time, mourning its loss, and breaking it down to the times of day: morning and night–in the yearning of night and departure of the lover that follows morning, and the seasons–especially spring.
That as well as the impatience, frustration, despair, and sweet longing, all caused by the yearning to love and be loved, just as palpable in the lover today as they were rendered so honestly and beautifully by these poets a millennium ago.
Finally, striking too are the two last poems by both Komachi and Shikibu. Both alluding to their deaths, and Shikibu’s believed to be written while on her deathbed.
碍辞尘补肠丑颈’蝉:
This body
grown fragile, floating,
a reed cut from its roots…
If a stream would ask me
to follow, I’d go, I think
While watching
the long rains falling on this
world
my heart, too, fades
with the unseen color
of the spring flowers.
How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart.
In this world the living grow fewer,
the dead increase—
how much longer must I
carry this body of grief?
This abandoned house
shining
in the mountain village—
how many nights
has the autumn moon spent
here?
厂丑颈办颈产耻’蝉:
The way I must enter
leads through darkness to dark
苍别蝉蝉—
O moon above the mountains’
rim,
please shine a little further
on my path.
What else can I say? These poems are magnificent.
September 26, 2021
Translator's Acknowledgments
Introduction
--The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan
On Japanese Poetry and the Process of Translation
Notes to the Poems
Selected Bibliography & Further Reading
Introduction
--The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan
On Japanese Poetry and the Process of Translation
Notes to the Poems
Selected Bibliography & Further Reading
February 13, 2020
This is a collection of tanka-style poems from two women of the Heian-era imperial court, Ono No Komachi (ca.850, early era), and Izumi Shikibu (974?-1034?, era's greatest point; not related to Murasaki S., Shikibu being a title). These are poems talking about love, spiritual and emotional life. The appendix has first a piece on Japanese poetry and the translation process, which is great also for those interested in how this language works, and then notes on the poems, and a bibliography.
How sad,
to think I will end
as only
a pale green mist
drifting the far fields.
-Ono No Komachi
The introduction is great background information and well worth reading before going on to the poems. From Komachi only c.100 poems exist, and she's lesser known, but one can see why her poems are valued so hightly. And Shikibu's work is not lesser in quality. Most of the poems are answers to someone (a lover), and Shikibu wrote some answer-poems for others to use, too.
A string of jewels
from a broken necklace,
scattering -
more difficult to keep hold of
even than these is one's life.
-Izumi Shikibu
The moods in these poems, and the imagery-use, is impressive. Although you can easily read fast through them, I feel one should go slow with them, or return to them to appreciate them slowly, for they say much though are short in length. Themes of Buddhist faith linger especially in the poems towards late in life, and Shikibu's mournful poems for her lover one can relate to even today. The notes are great in shining light into some things in the poems that one could otherwise miss, and seeing the poems in the 'romanji' form of Japanese is also fun to read, even if one doesn't understand the words.
This is a little treasure of a book, with poems one can linger on for a long time.
How sad,
to think I will end
as only
a pale green mist
drifting the far fields.
-Ono No Komachi
The introduction is great background information and well worth reading before going on to the poems. From Komachi only c.100 poems exist, and she's lesser known, but one can see why her poems are valued so hightly. And Shikibu's work is not lesser in quality. Most of the poems are answers to someone (a lover), and Shikibu wrote some answer-poems for others to use, too.
A string of jewels
from a broken necklace,
scattering -
more difficult to keep hold of
even than these is one's life.
-Izumi Shikibu
The moods in these poems, and the imagery-use, is impressive. Although you can easily read fast through them, I feel one should go slow with them, or return to them to appreciate them slowly, for they say much though are short in length. Themes of Buddhist faith linger especially in the poems towards late in life, and Shikibu's mournful poems for her lover one can relate to even today. The notes are great in shining light into some things in the poems that one could otherwise miss, and seeing the poems in the 'romanji' form of Japanese is also fun to read, even if one doesn't understand the words.
This is a little treasure of a book, with poems one can linger on for a long time.
March 16, 2021
Cicadas, mountains, serenity, romance, longing, sadness and beauty.
Both very talented ladies, but Izumi Shikibu, of the early Heian period, in particular.
Even now if I saw you
only once,
I would long for you
through worlds,
worlds.
***
Sleeplessly
I watch over
the spring night
but no amount of guarding
is enough to make it stay.
***
You ask my thoughts
through the long night?
I spent it listening
to the heavy rain
beating against the windows.
***
Love-soaked, rain-soaked -
if people ask
which drenched your sleeves,
what will you say?
Both very talented ladies, but Izumi Shikibu, of the early Heian period, in particular.
Even now if I saw you
only once,
I would long for you
through worlds,
worlds.
***
Sleeplessly
I watch over
the spring night
but no amount of guarding
is enough to make it stay.
***
You ask my thoughts
through the long night?
I spent it listening
to the heavy rain
beating against the windows.
***
Love-soaked, rain-soaked -
if people ask
which drenched your sleeves,
what will you say?
January 23, 2021
I discovered Haiku poems years back and have been reading them off and on. One of the great things about haiku is its short length, its brevity. No long meanderings, it is over before we know it. This feature of the haiku has also made it challenging for readers like me. Because there is so much packed in those short three lines, most of the meaning and beauty is lost if one is not aware of what the poet is referring to, whether it is Japanese culture or history or geography. Also, typically the last line or the last word in the haiku summarizes the whole poem or elevates it to a new plane by adding a whole new dimension to the meaning. If we can't recognize what that last line or word says, we can't experience the beauty and the profound insight of the haiku. For something which is so short and looks deceptively simple, the haiku turns out to have a lot of hidden depth. And the reason for all this complexity lies in its short length, its brevity. So in a sense this short length is a double-edged sword. It is like packing too many things in a small suitcase which makes it difficult to close. In the haiku's case, the suitcase is beautifully and elegantly closed by the poet, but it resists the reader's attempt to open it and it refuses to reveal its secrets. I have always wondered since whether there were longer forms of Japanese poetry. I love the beauty of Japanese literature and the Japanese style of literary aesthetics and I wanted to experience the beauty and joy of Japanese poetry in a more accessible way. Then I discovered that there was a longer poetic form called Tanka. I hoped to explore Tanka poetry some day and see whether I'll have better luck here.
Why all this rambling about Japanese poetic forms? I'll come to it now.
I discovered 'The Ink Dark Moon : Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu' recently. It featured two women poets from the Heian era (around 1000 years back) and I wanted to read it. When I got it yesterday and started reading the introduction, I discovered that the poems featured were written in the tanka style. I was so excited! I was finally going to read some tanka poetry!
The Heian era saw an explosion of literary creativity in Japan. It was the time when many women poets and writers burst out on the literary scene. Some people say that it was the era which saw the greatest concentration of women poets and writers in ancient or medieval times, anywhere in the world. It was the time the world's first novel 'The Tale of Genji' was written by the great Murasaki Shikibu. It was also the time when the two great poets Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu wrote their poems.
This book has around 160 poems. Around one-fourth of them are by Ono no Komachi. The rest are by Izumi Shikibu. Most of the poems are about love, longing, desire, loss. Some of them are about other topics.
The poems in the book are written in tanka style. How does it differ from the haiku? I am sure there are poetic and technical differences between the two forms, like the number of syllables in the poem and the poetic form and meter used. But these don't really matter to us much. The thing which is easily visible to lay-readers like me is this. While the haiku has three lines, the tanka has five. This isn't much, as I was expecting a sonnet-style fourteen lines. But those two extra lines, though they don't seem to be much, change the poem in a fundamental way. They add a lot of breathing space, in which the poem can stretch itself, relax, and reveal its glorious beauty to us. And it happens in page after page, poem after poem. The poems are beautiful, sad, poignant, heartbreaking, insightful, philosophical. The words are soft, the images are delicate. I read them and I laughed and I cried. Mostly cried, because of what the poem said. I think tanka is my Japanese poetic form, my precious. I love it.
I loved the poems of both Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. At one point, I thought that I could differentiate between their styles, and then I couldn't. It didn't matter. They are both wonderful poets. The book has an informative introduction to the life and work of the two poets. It also has an essay at the end, 'On Japanese Poetry and the Process of Translation', by one of the translators, Jane Hirshfield. Hirshfield's essay reveals a deep scholarship, a passion for Japanese poetry, a delicate poetic sensibility, a lightness of touch. It is one of the most beautiful essays on poetry and translation that I have ever read. I fell in love with Jane Hirshfield after I read that. I discovered that she was a poet herself (who else but a poet can write so beautifully?) and I went and ordered two of her books. I can't wait to read them. I already know that she is going to become one of my favourite writers and poets.
This is early days yet, but I think I can safely say that this is one of my favourite books of the year and one of my favourite poetry collections ever. It is a beautiful book to read on a winter evening, sitting in front of the fire, with your beloved sitting next to you, with both of you taking turns to read the poems aloud to each other and taking pleasure in listening to each other's voice, while experiencing the beauty of the poems. And if your beloved is not around and is away, you can read a poem, close your eyes, let the poem wash over you and dream of your beloved.
Have you read 'The Ink Dark Moon'? What do you think about it?
Why all this rambling about Japanese poetic forms? I'll come to it now.
I discovered 'The Ink Dark Moon : Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu' recently. It featured two women poets from the Heian era (around 1000 years back) and I wanted to read it. When I got it yesterday and started reading the introduction, I discovered that the poems featured were written in the tanka style. I was so excited! I was finally going to read some tanka poetry!
The Heian era saw an explosion of literary creativity in Japan. It was the time when many women poets and writers burst out on the literary scene. Some people say that it was the era which saw the greatest concentration of women poets and writers in ancient or medieval times, anywhere in the world. It was the time the world's first novel 'The Tale of Genji' was written by the great Murasaki Shikibu. It was also the time when the two great poets Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu wrote their poems.
This book has around 160 poems. Around one-fourth of them are by Ono no Komachi. The rest are by Izumi Shikibu. Most of the poems are about love, longing, desire, loss. Some of them are about other topics.
The poems in the book are written in tanka style. How does it differ from the haiku? I am sure there are poetic and technical differences between the two forms, like the number of syllables in the poem and the poetic form and meter used. But these don't really matter to us much. The thing which is easily visible to lay-readers like me is this. While the haiku has three lines, the tanka has five. This isn't much, as I was expecting a sonnet-style fourteen lines. But those two extra lines, though they don't seem to be much, change the poem in a fundamental way. They add a lot of breathing space, in which the poem can stretch itself, relax, and reveal its glorious beauty to us. And it happens in page after page, poem after poem. The poems are beautiful, sad, poignant, heartbreaking, insightful, philosophical. The words are soft, the images are delicate. I read them and I laughed and I cried. Mostly cried, because of what the poem said. I think tanka is my Japanese poetic form, my precious. I love it.
I loved the poems of both Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. At one point, I thought that I could differentiate between their styles, and then I couldn't. It didn't matter. They are both wonderful poets. The book has an informative introduction to the life and work of the two poets. It also has an essay at the end, 'On Japanese Poetry and the Process of Translation', by one of the translators, Jane Hirshfield. Hirshfield's essay reveals a deep scholarship, a passion for Japanese poetry, a delicate poetic sensibility, a lightness of touch. It is one of the most beautiful essays on poetry and translation that I have ever read. I fell in love with Jane Hirshfield after I read that. I discovered that she was a poet herself (who else but a poet can write so beautifully?) and I went and ordered two of her books. I can't wait to read them. I already know that she is going to become one of my favourite writers and poets.
This is early days yet, but I think I can safely say that this is one of my favourite books of the year and one of my favourite poetry collections ever. It is a beautiful book to read on a winter evening, sitting in front of the fire, with your beloved sitting next to you, with both of you taking turns to read the poems aloud to each other and taking pleasure in listening to each other's voice, while experiencing the beauty of the poems. And if your beloved is not around and is away, you can read a poem, close your eyes, let the poem wash over you and dream of your beloved.
Have you read 'The Ink Dark Moon'? What do you think about it?
February 27, 2013
Beautiful amuse-bouche poems, these are lovely little bites of awesomeness, and I enjoyed reading about both the Heian court, of which I'd never heard, as well as the intricacies and issues of translating ancient Japanese poems. And what the hell, I'll thrown in a couple of my many favorites:
In this world
love has no color--
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.
***
When the water-freezing
winter arrives,
the floating reeds look rooted,
as if stillness
were their own desire.
In this world
love has no color--
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.
***
When the water-freezing
winter arrives,
the floating reeds look rooted,
as if stillness
were their own desire.
September 3, 2023
to love is to suffer.
August 9, 2015
If Haiku are observational and sparse, understated in their emotion, detached from the poet’s ego – then I find that Tanka are almost their opposite.
With Tanka the poet expresses their emotion, asks questions directly of the reader(or themselves) and layers emotional imagery that can seem to explode off the page (particularly if you have only been reading Haiku). Indeed at times while The Ink Dark Moon, I found these poems from 8th-10th Century Japan more akin to the overtly emotional work of the western Romantics (albeit in shorter form).
So the The Ink Dark Moon presents some of the translated works of Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu two of Japan’s greatest practitioners of the Tanka form. They wrote during the Heian era, the only period of Japanese history where female poets appear to have been able to rise to the height of their art and have been regarded as literary geniuses.
The book offers a substantial introduction, placing both writers in their historical context. The poems themselves are presented in two sections, Ono no Komachi’s work preceding Izumi Shikibu’s.
Now while Haiku and Tanka poets have been known to write poems in the tens of thousands the translators have offered a (comparatively) modest and reasonably digestible collection here - I gave up counting the number of Izumi Shikibu’s at around 60 Tanka.
At times the poems are presented with head notes (particularly if its a poem responding to lover or unique set of circumstances) and at times they are left to be read as is. There is, however, a substantial notes section that provides the Romaji version of the poem and any other interesting facts.
The Ink Dark Moon is rounded off nicely with, On Japanese Poetry and the Process of Translation, which discusses some of the issues and choices translators make when translating from Japanese to English.
What is apparent, on reading either poet, is that the Tanka form with its focus on passion and love, requires less background knowledge to fully appreciate, than say Haiku. There’s significantly less to be read into the poet’s intent or meaning.
I found The Ink Dark Moon to be both interesting from the point of beginning to understand Tanka and the history around the form but I was also moved by the poetry. It’s must have for anyone interested in writing in the Tanka form, and a delight for those readers who enjoy the poetry of love and emotion.
With Tanka the poet expresses their emotion, asks questions directly of the reader(or themselves) and layers emotional imagery that can seem to explode off the page (particularly if you have only been reading Haiku). Indeed at times while The Ink Dark Moon, I found these poems from 8th-10th Century Japan more akin to the overtly emotional work of the western Romantics (albeit in shorter form).
I thought to pick
the flower of forgetting
for myself,
but I found it
already growing in his heart
Ono no Komachi
So the The Ink Dark Moon presents some of the translated works of Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu two of Japan’s greatest practitioners of the Tanka form. They wrote during the Heian era, the only period of Japanese history where female poets appear to have been able to rise to the height of their art and have been regarded as literary geniuses.
The book offers a substantial introduction, placing both writers in their historical context. The poems themselves are presented in two sections, Ono no Komachi’s work preceding Izumi Shikibu’s.
Now while Haiku and Tanka poets have been known to write poems in the tens of thousands the translators have offered a (comparatively) modest and reasonably digestible collection here - I gave up counting the number of Izumi Shikibu’s at around 60 Tanka.
At times the poems are presented with head notes (particularly if its a poem responding to lover or unique set of circumstances) and at times they are left to be read as is. There is, however, a substantial notes section that provides the Romaji version of the poem and any other interesting facts.
The Ink Dark Moon is rounded off nicely with, On Japanese Poetry and the Process of Translation, which discusses some of the issues and choices translators make when translating from Japanese to English.
What is apparent, on reading either poet, is that the Tanka form with its focus on passion and love, requires less background knowledge to fully appreciate, than say Haiku. There’s significantly less to be read into the poet’s intent or meaning.
Why haven’t I
thought of it before?
This body,
remembering yours,
is the keepsake you left.
Izumi Shikibu
I found The Ink Dark Moon to be both interesting from the point of beginning to understand Tanka and the history around the form but I was also moved by the poetry. It’s must have for anyone interested in writing in the Tanka form, and a delight for those readers who enjoy the poetry of love and emotion.
November 26, 2017
Oh, this was just lovely. Passionate but also serene.
It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the Heian period of literature, one of the rare periods in history where women had the opportunity, education, and respect (mostly) to dominate the literary field.
This one is a special pairing of two poets, Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. Although I enjoyed both, I would give Ono a 4 star rating and Izumi 5 stars. Ono writes mainly on nature and brief relationships and imparts a sense that she was able to love someone truly in moments, and let them go the next moment to love another just as completely. Izumi seems more reserved in who she loves, but more explosive in the depth of her love. She also incorporates a lot of her intense religiosity into her poems. I think her best poems were those grieving the love of her life and her daughter.
I've included some of my favourites from each below.
If, in an autumn field
a hundred flowers
can untie their streamers,
may I not also openly frolic,
as fearless of blame?
-Ono no Komachi
Why haven't I thought of it before?
This body,
remembering yours,
is the keepsake you left.
-Ono no Komachi
In this world
love has no color-
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.
-Izumi Shikibu
Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out.
-Izumi Shikibu
It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the Heian period of literature, one of the rare periods in history where women had the opportunity, education, and respect (mostly) to dominate the literary field.
This one is a special pairing of two poets, Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. Although I enjoyed both, I would give Ono a 4 star rating and Izumi 5 stars. Ono writes mainly on nature and brief relationships and imparts a sense that she was able to love someone truly in moments, and let them go the next moment to love another just as completely. Izumi seems more reserved in who she loves, but more explosive in the depth of her love. She also incorporates a lot of her intense religiosity into her poems. I think her best poems were those grieving the love of her life and her daughter.
I've included some of my favourites from each below.
If, in an autumn field
a hundred flowers
can untie their streamers,
may I not also openly frolic,
as fearless of blame?
-Ono no Komachi
Why haven't I thought of it before?
This body,
remembering yours,
is the keepsake you left.
-Ono no Komachi
In this world
love has no color-
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.
-Izumi Shikibu
Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out.
-Izumi Shikibu
December 18, 2015
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Read
April 14, 2018The full title is? The Ink Dark Moon:
These two women wrote in the Heian era, which lasted from 794 to 1185. Ono No Komachi (834 - ?), and Izumi? Shikibu (974? - 1034?) Their lives, and life in Japan, are nothing to what we are used to or had at the time. From the introduction:
This is an easy to read book. The poems are mostly 5 lines. The pages have more blank space than print. This is great, since it allows the reader to immerse herself in the mood and style of the poems. If you are like me and know nothing about Japan, next to nothing on Poetry, and have never read these women who write in a poetry style known as Tanka, (I've only experienced a bit of Haiku), this could be a great introduction to you, as it was to me.
What surprised me the most, was the Appendix, that has a few pages about the translation, and then generous comments on all of the poems, so that I read the notes on them, and the poems once more.
I mentioned before that I was a bit frustrated with some reviewers who said translation in this case was meant to miss so much. I can't read Japanese, and I refuse to think I can't thus not enjoy these poems. After reading the translator's effort explained, and her rational, I can say that, even if my experience is inferior to a Japanese reader, it's an experience I wouldn't want to miss.
This is a quote on the issue of how to best fulfill the ideal of faithfulness in terms of a poem's structure.
I have not had the pleasure nor the knowledge of reading and evaluating how these other translators approached these tanka poems. All I can say it's that these poems have surprised me, the translator has retained that unique experience of non English or European poetry, while having a recognizable quality that one experiences when reading poetry.
More quotes:
Last, to end this post, in honor of Spring and April, poetry month, I leave you with one of my favorite poems in this book by Izumi Shikibu,
?
These two women wrote in the Heian era, which lasted from 794 to 1185. Ono No Komachi (834 - ?), and Izumi? Shikibu (974? - 1034?) Their lives, and life in Japan, are nothing to what we are used to or had at the time. From the introduction:
Komachi and Shikibu stand out as two of the greatest poets in an age of greatness not simply because they achieved technical virtuosity in their chosen form, the thirty-one syllable tanka verse, but because they used that form as a medium of reflection and introspection. Each confronted her experience with a directness and honesty unusual in ani age. The result is that a thousand years later we can read poems that remain absolutely accurate and moving descriptions of our most common and central experiences: love and loss, their reflection in the loveliness and evanescence of the natural world, and the effort to understand better the nature of being. We turn to these poems not to discover the past but to experience the present more deeply. In this way they satisfy the test of all great literature, for it is our own lives we find illuminated in them.
This is an easy to read book. The poems are mostly 5 lines. The pages have more blank space than print. This is great, since it allows the reader to immerse herself in the mood and style of the poems. If you are like me and know nothing about Japan, next to nothing on Poetry, and have never read these women who write in a poetry style known as Tanka, (I've only experienced a bit of Haiku), this could be a great introduction to you, as it was to me.
What surprised me the most, was the Appendix, that has a few pages about the translation, and then generous comments on all of the poems, so that I read the notes on them, and the poems once more.
I mentioned before that I was a bit frustrated with some reviewers who said translation in this case was meant to miss so much. I can't read Japanese, and I refuse to think I can't thus not enjoy these poems. After reading the translator's effort explained, and her rational, I can say that, even if my experience is inferior to a Japanese reader, it's an experience I wouldn't want to miss.
This is a quote on the issue of how to best fulfill the ideal of faithfulness in terms of a poem's structure.
Too often the effort to preserve exactly thirty-one syllables in the translation of tanka results in either a poem with words added merely to fill out the count or one with part of its meaning or imagery left out. Furthermore, the powerful aural resonance of the form itself, built up by long familiarity with its use in the responses of a Japanese reader, is nonexistent for one brought up on the meters and forms of English and European poetry. But, while I don't feel it important to duplicate the exact syllabic count of Japanese poetry, I am always surprised if a three-line haiku appears as a couplet, or a five-line waka (the other name sometimes used for the tanka form) is made into a quatrian. Rather than experiencing these English forms as somehow "equivalent," I find that the essentially asymmetrical nature of the original is lost by turning to what may seem to be the nearest convention, and that the use of our own convention masks the nature of the original poems, making them seem less different in rhythm and approach than they are. Yet clearly many very fine translators, from both ends of the spectrum of freedom and form, disagree with my reactions.
I have not had the pleasure nor the knowledge of reading and evaluating how these other translators approached these tanka poems. All I can say it's that these poems have surprised me, the translator has retained that unique experience of non English or European poetry, while having a recognizable quality that one experiences when reading poetry.
More quotes:
Anyone who attempts that impossible task, the translation of poetry, must at some point wonder what exactly a poem might be, if not its own body of words. For surely, as all can attest who have made the hard and joyous effort to write well a poem of their own, poetry dwells in words: absolutely particular in meaning, irreplaceably individual in rhythm and sound. Yet there must be something in addition to words, and underlying sense of a destination unknown but also there, which makes us accept one phrase and reject another when they rise to mind in poem's first making, or delete or alter or add when we revise. The act of writing a poem is not only a making but also a following: of the wisdom of the heart and mind as it encounters the wisdom of language. The act of translation constitutes a leap of faith, a belief that somehow this part of a poem that lives both through words and beyond words can be kept alive, can move from its life in one verbal body into another.
All translations are inescapably ephemeral, linked to the poetry of their own time's language in a way that an original work is not. Yet most of us depend on translations—if we are lucky, in several versions—as the only way to encounter the poetry of other cultures and times.?(bold mine)
The ninth-century Japanese Buddhist monk Kukai—in legend, the man responsible for developing kana, the system for using Chinese written characters to convey Japanese words, which enabled the Heian-era court women to transcribe their poems—wrote a quatrain about the way source travels out into multitudinous form, always changing, shifting, illuminating:
SINGING THE IMAGE OF FIRE
A hand moves, and the fire's whirling takes different shapes,
triangles, squares: all things change when we do.
The first word, Ah, blossomed into all others.
Each of them is true.
In the spirit of this poem, greatly encouraging to poets and greatly encouraging to translators, we offer the work in this book.
Last, to end this post, in honor of Spring and April, poetry month, I leave you with one of my favorite poems in this book by Izumi Shikibu,
What is the use
of cherishing life in spring?
Its flowers
only shackle us
to this world.
?
September 21, 2020
Ono no Komachi
"My longing for you--
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams."
"Night deepens
with the sound
of a calling deer,
and I hear
my own one-sided love."
"This entangling wind
is just like
last autumn's gusts.
Only the dew of tears
on my sleeve is new."
"This pine tree by the rock
must have its memories too:
after a thousand years,
see how its branches
lean toward the ground."
"How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart."
Izumi Shikibu
"In this world
love has no color--
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours."
"Undisturbed,
my garden fills
with summer growth--
how I wish for one
who would push the deep grass aside."
"Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out."
"This heart is not
a summer field,
and yet...
how dense love's foliage
has grown."
"My longing for you--
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams."
"Night deepens
with the sound
of a calling deer,
and I hear
my own one-sided love."
"This entangling wind
is just like
last autumn's gusts.
Only the dew of tears
on my sleeve is new."
"This pine tree by the rock
must have its memories too:
after a thousand years,
see how its branches
lean toward the ground."
"How invisibly
it changes color
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart."
Izumi Shikibu
"In this world
love has no color--
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours."
"Undisturbed,
my garden fills
with summer growth--
how I wish for one
who would push the deep grass aside."
"Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out."
"This heart is not
a summer field,
and yet...
how dense love's foliage
has grown."
April 13, 2021
Third book on Japanese poetry this year yes I'm obssessed no I'm not ? but honestly while the poems themselves were beautiful and sublime it was the appendix showing how the book was translated that was soo sexy and im gonna buy a copy just for a closer reading.
April 22, 2025
An absolute requirement for any collection of poetry.
October 25, 2020
"Since my heart placed me
on board your drifting ship,
not one day has passed
that I haven't been drenched
in cold waves."
Ono no Komachi
---
"Last year's
fragile, vanished snow
is falling now again —
if only seeing you
could be like this."
Izumi Shikibu
***
Até há pouquíssimas semanas, o nome de Ono no Komachi era-me totalmente desconhecido — foi um dos muitos nomes que retive a partir da leitura de uma antologia de poesia japonesa ("A Pedra-que-Mata", Língua Morta) e este método de descoberta de novos autores sempre foi o meu favorito. Gosto de trope?ar neles quando menos o espero; gosto de os encontrar citados num outro livro; gosto destas referências subtis e um tanto ou quanto modestas que perfumam os dias. Por esta poeta desenvolvi um amor assolapado e n?o tardou muito até que come?asse a procurar por outras referências, e foi assim que descobri este livro.
N?o o terminei hoje. Na verdade, terminei-o há vários dias mas mantenho-o por perto pois está em vias de se tornar um dos meus livros favoritos deste ano. Interessa-me, sobretudo, que seja uma compila??o de poemas de amor, porém pouco ou raramente abordado do ponto de vista do amor feliz — s?o sobretudo poemas sobre a espera, a solid?o, o desassossego; poemas de dor, de desamparo, de escurid?o. N?o pude deixar de pensar em Tanizaki e no seu "Elogio da Sombra" — os poemas de amor contidos neste livro s?o, na sua maioria, espelhos de um silêncio interior que as palavras mal conseguem acompanhar mas nada disto invalida a sua beleza: a beleza que há no sofrimento, na dor, na espera, no desamparo, na solid?o.
on board your drifting ship,
not one day has passed
that I haven't been drenched
in cold waves."
Ono no Komachi
---
"Last year's
fragile, vanished snow
is falling now again —
if only seeing you
could be like this."
Izumi Shikibu
***
Até há pouquíssimas semanas, o nome de Ono no Komachi era-me totalmente desconhecido — foi um dos muitos nomes que retive a partir da leitura de uma antologia de poesia japonesa ("A Pedra-que-Mata", Língua Morta) e este método de descoberta de novos autores sempre foi o meu favorito. Gosto de trope?ar neles quando menos o espero; gosto de os encontrar citados num outro livro; gosto destas referências subtis e um tanto ou quanto modestas que perfumam os dias. Por esta poeta desenvolvi um amor assolapado e n?o tardou muito até que come?asse a procurar por outras referências, e foi assim que descobri este livro.
N?o o terminei hoje. Na verdade, terminei-o há vários dias mas mantenho-o por perto pois está em vias de se tornar um dos meus livros favoritos deste ano. Interessa-me, sobretudo, que seja uma compila??o de poemas de amor, porém pouco ou raramente abordado do ponto de vista do amor feliz — s?o sobretudo poemas sobre a espera, a solid?o, o desassossego; poemas de dor, de desamparo, de escurid?o. N?o pude deixar de pensar em Tanizaki e no seu "Elogio da Sombra" — os poemas de amor contidos neste livro s?o, na sua maioria, espelhos de um silêncio interior que as palavras mal conseguem acompanhar mas nada disto invalida a sua beleza: a beleza que há no sofrimento, na dor, na espera, no desamparo, na solid?o.
January 11, 2019
Gorgeous. Intimate. Enchanting. Beyond Beautiful.
October 1, 2019
Introduction
“The two poets whose work is collected in The Ink Dark Moon are central figures in the only Golden Age in literary history in which women writers were the predominant geniuses: Japan’s Heian era, which lasted from 794 to 1185. Ono no Komachi (834?–?) served at the imperial court in the capital city of Heian-kyo (present-day Kyoto) during the first half century of its existence; her poetry, deeply subjective, passionate, and complex, helped to usher in a poetic age of personal expressiveness, technical excellence, and philosophical and emotional depth. Izumi Shikibu (974?–1034?) wrote during the time of the court culture’s greatest flowering; a woman committed to a life of both religious consciousness and erotic intensity, Shikibu explored her experience in language that is precise in observation, intimate, lyrical, and deeply moving. These two women, the first a pivotal figure who became legendary in Japanese literary history, the second Japan’s major woman poet, illuminated certain areas of human experience with a beauty, truthfulness, and compression unsurpassed in the literature of any other age.
[...]
“One of the deep pleasures in reading their poetry is discovering the way that, for these women, the metaphysics of religious teaching and the tumultuous course of the heart in love confirm a single truth, the impermanence of being. The endeavor to come to some acceptance and understanding of this unavoidable transience profoundly illuminates their work.”
“My longing for you—
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams.
[...]
Is this love reality
or a dream?
I cannot know,
when both reality and dreams
exist without truly existing.“
“I thought to pick
the flower of forgetting
for myself,
but I found it
already growing in his heart.”
Izumi Shikibu
*Tanabata Festival, which takes place on the seventh night of the seventh month, celebrates lovers’ meetings and poetry. On that night a gathering of magpies is said to form with their wings a bridge across the river of the heavens so that two stars can meet. The two—Altair and Vega—were once lovers, Cow Herder Boy and Weaver Girl, but were turned into stars and separated after their love caused them to neglect their duties.
‘鲍苍诲颈蝉迟耻谤产别诲,
my garden fills
with summer growth—
how I wish for one
who would push the deep grass aside.’
“As I dig for wild orchids
in the autumn fields,
it is the deeply-bedded root
that I desire,
not the flower.”
“The two poets whose work is collected in The Ink Dark Moon are central figures in the only Golden Age in literary history in which women writers were the predominant geniuses: Japan’s Heian era, which lasted from 794 to 1185. Ono no Komachi (834?–?) served at the imperial court in the capital city of Heian-kyo (present-day Kyoto) during the first half century of its existence; her poetry, deeply subjective, passionate, and complex, helped to usher in a poetic age of personal expressiveness, technical excellence, and philosophical and emotional depth. Izumi Shikibu (974?–1034?) wrote during the time of the court culture’s greatest flowering; a woman committed to a life of both religious consciousness and erotic intensity, Shikibu explored her experience in language that is precise in observation, intimate, lyrical, and deeply moving. These two women, the first a pivotal figure who became legendary in Japanese literary history, the second Japan’s major woman poet, illuminated certain areas of human experience with a beauty, truthfulness, and compression unsurpassed in the literature of any other age.
[...]
“One of the deep pleasures in reading their poetry is discovering the way that, for these women, the metaphysics of religious teaching and the tumultuous course of the heart in love confirm a single truth, the impermanence of being. The endeavor to come to some acceptance and understanding of this unavoidable transience profoundly illuminates their work.”
“My longing for you—
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams.
[...]
Is this love reality
or a dream?
I cannot know,
when both reality and dreams
exist without truly existing.“
“I thought to pick
the flower of forgetting
for myself,
but I found it
already growing in his heart.”
Izumi Shikibu
*Tanabata Festival, which takes place on the seventh night of the seventh month, celebrates lovers’ meetings and poetry. On that night a gathering of magpies is said to form with their wings a bridge across the river of the heavens so that two stars can meet. The two—Altair and Vega—were once lovers, Cow Herder Boy and Weaver Girl, but were turned into stars and separated after their love caused them to neglect their duties.
‘鲍苍诲颈蝉迟耻谤产别诲,
my garden fills
with summer growth—
how I wish for one
who would push the deep grass aside.’
“As I dig for wild orchids
in the autumn fields,
it is the deeply-bedded root
that I desire,
not the flower.”
August 24, 2022
The Japanese language is uniquely suited to poetry.
Unfortunately, my grasp on Old Japanese is very poor. I could not read these masterpieces in their original form.
"My longing for you---
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams."
Ono no Komachi
Unfortunately, my grasp on Old Japanese is very poor. I could not read these masterpieces in their original form.
"My longing for you---
too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
when I go to you at night
along the road of dreams."
Ono no Komachi
May 7, 2018
It took me a while to get beneath the surface of these poems, perseverance being rewarded. Of the two poets, I preferred Shikibu to Komachi; she seems to touch in a broader range of topics, though this could be due to fewer of her poems having survived, the smaller collection of her works in this volume, the editor's selection, or a combination of the three.
In addition to, and often at the same time as, writing about love, Shikibu talks of the transient and impermanent nature of existence; bereavement, loss and grief; enlightenment, acceptance and contentment.
The introduction, appendix and notes were very welcome to this Westerner with little (that is, zero) knowledge of the cultural context and literary antecedents upon which the poems are founded. With that help, I was able to appreciate some of the subtleties of the verses, which I'm sure we'll reward rereading.
The phrase "ink dark moon" is not used by either poet (unless I missed it), although the individual words appear many times thought the collection. The introduction mentions the ancient Greek use of standard poetic descriptions, citing Homer's "wine dark sea" as an example, and I think that's the allusion made in the title.
Beautiful and poignant verses.
In addition to, and often at the same time as, writing about love, Shikibu talks of the transient and impermanent nature of existence; bereavement, loss and grief; enlightenment, acceptance and contentment.
The introduction, appendix and notes were very welcome to this Westerner with little (that is, zero) knowledge of the cultural context and literary antecedents upon which the poems are founded. With that help, I was able to appreciate some of the subtleties of the verses, which I'm sure we'll reward rereading.
The phrase "ink dark moon" is not used by either poet (unless I missed it), although the individual words appear many times thought the collection. The introduction mentions the ancient Greek use of standard poetic descriptions, citing Homer's "wine dark sea" as an example, and I think that's the allusion made in the title.
Beautiful and poignant verses.
February 16, 2021
I don't know how I should rate this one given that I have no great knowledge of poetry, especially Japanese poetry. The book was amazing in explaning the culture and the poets' backgrounds and I learnt a lot before I dived in to the poetry itself.
I enjoyed the writing too much and I felt like most of them were so atmospheric and full of feelings that suited the past few days greatly. It was also smart and well written, witty and sad. I will get back to this book in the future (I believe autumn is the best season to read this book) because I wanna see how I'll feel about it then. Maybe I'll love it in a different way, maybe I'll love it the same.
I enjoyed the writing too much and I felt like most of them were so atmospheric and full of feelings that suited the past few days greatly. It was also smart and well written, witty and sad. I will get back to this book in the future (I believe autumn is the best season to read this book) because I wanna see how I'll feel about it then. Maybe I'll love it in a different way, maybe I'll love it the same.
February 20, 2023
An exquisite collection of haikus and tankas that have existed for centuries— written by two female poets during the Heian era.
During that time, poems were used as a form of communication between lovers— when they would meet up, where, and of course, their sentiments toward each other.
It’s amazing that one could express so much within the seventeen syllables of a haiku, and if it cannot be helped— the longer tanka would be used.
The art of poetry has always been so deeply ingrained into Japanese culture that they wrote poems about anything and everything— but for this collection, it’s all about love, lust, and desire, told through women’s perspectives.
If you’re a fan of Sappho and Emily Dickinson, then this is for you.
Thank you so much, @vintagebooks for gifting me these beautiful copies to read and review ?
—this was my review on Instagram (@chroniqled)
——
My review after finishing the book:
Wow oh wow. This has become one of my favourite poetry books of all time now.
Let me be honest— I thought there was no greater Japanese poet than Basho, having read a lot of his work and from other Japanese poets as well.
I take it back. Ono no Komachi is now my favourite— and thank God for female poets. There is quite literally no accurate way to compare male and female poets, aside from the fact that women’s words just resonate with me better, obviously because I am female.
I have noticed, though, that male Japanese poets focus more on imagery and spirituality, while females display more passion, sensuality, and sensitivity towards the self and one’s desires in their poems. It is the ability of these female poets to make me *feel* and drown in their words that really get me. I think this collection actually changed my life.
Thank you so much to Penguin UK for gifting me this absolutely beautiful copy. I love this collection so much. It shall live in my mind and heart forever.
During that time, poems were used as a form of communication between lovers— when they would meet up, where, and of course, their sentiments toward each other.
It’s amazing that one could express so much within the seventeen syllables of a haiku, and if it cannot be helped— the longer tanka would be used.
The art of poetry has always been so deeply ingrained into Japanese culture that they wrote poems about anything and everything— but for this collection, it’s all about love, lust, and desire, told through women’s perspectives.
If you’re a fan of Sappho and Emily Dickinson, then this is for you.
Thank you so much, @vintagebooks for gifting me these beautiful copies to read and review ?
—this was my review on Instagram (@chroniqled)
——
My review after finishing the book:
Wow oh wow. This has become one of my favourite poetry books of all time now.
Let me be honest— I thought there was no greater Japanese poet than Basho, having read a lot of his work and from other Japanese poets as well.
I take it back. Ono no Komachi is now my favourite— and thank God for female poets. There is quite literally no accurate way to compare male and female poets, aside from the fact that women’s words just resonate with me better, obviously because I am female.
I have noticed, though, that male Japanese poets focus more on imagery and spirituality, while females display more passion, sensuality, and sensitivity towards the self and one’s desires in their poems. It is the ability of these female poets to make me *feel* and drown in their words that really get me. I think this collection actually changed my life.
Thank you so much to Penguin UK for gifting me this absolutely beautiful copy. I love this collection so much. It shall live in my mind and heart forever.
January 9, 2022
Elegant short poems by two women writing during Japan’s Heian Dynasty. I didn’t have any background in these poets and particularly liked the vivid and illuminating preface about the poets and their era as well as the closing essay about the translation process.
May 1, 2024
3.5 - i liked it, it just didnt end me the way i wanted it to
August 28, 2024
Komachi and Shikibu lived and wrote during Japan's Heian period, which ran from 794 to 1185, long before haiku would be popularized by Bashō in the late 1600s. Prior to the Heian period, beginning in the fourth or fifth century, Chinese served as the official written language for government communication and scholarly discourse in Japan. Women were not usually educated in the use of Chinese, but at the end of the eighth century, a new system of writing was introduced that would become so closely associated with women that, for a time, it was known as "women's writing." Hiragana, a phonetic way to write Japanese that's easy to learn and doesn't rely on memorizing complex Chinese characters, opened up a world where women could engage in the practice of writing—and revolutionizing—courtly poetry, and Komachi and Shikibu are considered to be two of the greats. Komachi wrote in the mid-to-late 800s and Shikibu about a hundred years later, yet as members of the Heian court their poetry shares many of the same concerns.
This is a collection of tanka, which, like haiku, is a form structured around syllable counts, in this case 5-7-5-7-7 . These love poems are romantic in the classic crying-into-your-sleeve sense, longing, mournful, and melancholy, and are generally shaped around a lover's absence, often written from the perspective of the morning after. I couldn't detect much of a difference in style between the poets—perhaps due to the translator's influence—but of the two Komachi tends toward the extra and at times can be as melodramatic as a teenager wailing they're about to die because their crush didn't look their way during lunch. People gonna people, no matter what time or place. Shikibu's work is also occupied with longing and loneliness, but, to me, is a bit more subtle about it. Both are very much worth reading. Hirshfield's translations have a light touch and her introduction to this period and its poetry is highly accessible and provides important context about the times these women were living in and the poetry they were writing.
Here are a few of my favorites:
This morning
even my morning glories
are hiding,
not wanting to show
their sleep-mussed hair.
?????—Ono no Komachi
It seems a time has come
when you've become like those horses
wild with spring
who long for distant fields
where the light mists rise.
?????—Ono no Komachi
In this world
love has no color—
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.
?????—Izumi Shikibu
How easily,
leaving my house,
he cuts through
the embroidered fabric
of the fall leaves!
?????—Izumi Shikibu
The visuals of this last poem are so striking. I can see the ground with its embroidered leaves spread out before the departing lover like a quilt. It's quite remarkable, and this dude doesn't even notice the beauty he's trampling through! He's just absolutely on his way. Many of the poems here are soaked in this sense of loss, of being left behind, of growing older and less desirable, and the collection ends with a series of poems by Shikibu mourning the death of Prince Atsumichi.
The appendix, also written by Hirshfield, offers a brief but informative introduction to Japanese poetry and discusses some of the challenges involved with translating Japanese into English, not just the language itself, but also the cultural references that would have been immediately accessible to anyone of the time. This is followed by notes to the poems which include every poem transliterated into romaji, as well as the occasional translator's note to provide additional cultural or historical context, explain a choice in the translation, or even offer an alternate reading.
This is a collection of tanka, which, like haiku, is a form structured around syllable counts, in this case 5-7-5-7-7 . These love poems are romantic in the classic crying-into-your-sleeve sense, longing, mournful, and melancholy, and are generally shaped around a lover's absence, often written from the perspective of the morning after. I couldn't detect much of a difference in style between the poets—perhaps due to the translator's influence—but of the two Komachi tends toward the extra and at times can be as melodramatic as a teenager wailing they're about to die because their crush didn't look their way during lunch. People gonna people, no matter what time or place. Shikibu's work is also occupied with longing and loneliness, but, to me, is a bit more subtle about it. Both are very much worth reading. Hirshfield's translations have a light touch and her introduction to this period and its poetry is highly accessible and provides important context about the times these women were living in and the poetry they were writing.
Here are a few of my favorites:
This morning
even my morning glories
are hiding,
not wanting to show
their sleep-mussed hair.
?????—Ono no Komachi
It seems a time has come
when you've become like those horses
wild with spring
who long for distant fields
where the light mists rise.
?????—Ono no Komachi
In this world
love has no color—
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.
?????—Izumi Shikibu
How easily,
leaving my house,
he cuts through
the embroidered fabric
of the fall leaves!
?????—Izumi Shikibu
The visuals of this last poem are so striking. I can see the ground with its embroidered leaves spread out before the departing lover like a quilt. It's quite remarkable, and this dude doesn't even notice the beauty he's trampling through! He's just absolutely on his way. Many of the poems here are soaked in this sense of loss, of being left behind, of growing older and less desirable, and the collection ends with a series of poems by Shikibu mourning the death of Prince Atsumichi.
The appendix, also written by Hirshfield, offers a brief but informative introduction to Japanese poetry and discusses some of the challenges involved with translating Japanese into English, not just the language itself, but also the cultural references that would have been immediately accessible to anyone of the time. This is followed by notes to the poems which include every poem transliterated into romaji, as well as the occasional translator's note to provide additional cultural or historical context, explain a choice in the translation, or even offer an alternate reading.
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