Thursday, March 15, 2018

AKIKO YOSANO ~







5



Fragrant the lilies

In this room of love;

Hair unbound

I fear

The pink of night's passing.







14



Beloved Buddha,

Among the new leaves of these trees,

More and more

I feel the friendliness

Of your face.






16



In my bath —

Submerged like some graceful lily

At the bottom of a spring

How beautiful

This body of twenty summers.







26



Softly I pushed open

That door

We call a mystery,

These full breasts

Held in both my hands.






32



After my bath

At the hot spring.

These clothes

As rough to my skin

As the world!






60



Complain not,

But hurry on your way —

Tonight, other soft hands

Will be waiting.

Ready to undo your clothes!






82



Yet I remember

Once

When the lily,

Dazzling white,

Ruled the fields of summer!







93



Two months

At this Kyoto inn,

I have done nothing but write my poems;

O you plaintive birds along the Kamo River,

Now I am not in love!






102



May the child

Born this morning

Find in time

A beautiful

Love.






112



Even at nineteen

I knew

The violet would fade,

The brook would dry up,

And life would pass away.






124



Soft morning rain,

Kimono sleeve

Striped, multicolored bright,

Over

Her small hand-drum.






137



Was it yesterday

Or a thousand years ago

We parted?

Even now I feel your hand

On this shoulder.







154



How lonely

By the temple bell

After I slipped out

To meet him

When the fog cleared.




————————————

Akiko Yosano
TANGLED HAIR
selected tanka from Midaregami
translated from the Japanese by
Sanford Goldstein & Seishi Shinoda
Cheng & Tsui Company, 2002