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
