Ono no Komachi

thumb|Iro miedeUtsurou momo waYo no naka noHito no kokoro noHana ni zo arikeruA thing which fadesWith no outward sign—Is the flowerOf the heart of manIn this world! thumb|Hito ni awanTsuki no naki ni waOmoiokiteMune hashiribi niKokoro yakeoriThis night of no moonThere is no way to meet him.I rise in longing—My breast pounds, a leaping flame,My heart is consumed in fire. Ono no Komachi (小野 小町; c. 825 – c. 900) was a Japanese waka poet.　She was renowned for her unusual beauty, and Komachi is today a synonym for feminine beauty in Japan. Quotes Yone Noguchi's The Spirit of Japanese Poetry (1914) The Spirit of Japanese Poetry, trans. Yone Noguchi (John Murray, 1914) The flowers and my lovePassed away under the rain,While I idly looked upon themWhere is my yester-love? p. 112 Donald Keene's Anthology of Japanese Literature (1955) Anthology of Japanese Literature: From the Earliest Era to the Mid-nineteenth Century, ed. Donald Keene (Allen & Unwin, 1955) Iro miedeUtsurou momo waYo no naka noHito no kokoro noHana ni zo arikeru A thing which fadesWith no outward sign—Is the flowerOf the heart of manIn this world! trans. Arthur Waley, p. 78 Hito ni awamuTsuki no naki yo waOmoiokiteMune hashiri hi niKokoro yakeori This night of no moonThere is no way to meet him.I rise in longing—My breast pounds, a leaping flame,My heart is consumed in fire. p. 78 OmoitsutsuNureba ya hito noMietsuramuYume to shirisebaSamezaramashi wo Thinking about himI slept, only to have himAppear before me—Had I known it was a dream,I should never have wakened. p. 78 WabinurebaMi wo ukigusa noNe wo taeteSasou mizu arabaInamu to zo omou So lonely am IMy body is a floating weedSevered at the roots.Were there water to entice me,I would follow it, I think. p. 79 Kenneth Rexroth's translations One Hundred Poems from the Japanese (1955) One Hundred Poems from the Japanese, trans. Kenneth Rexroth (New Directions Publishing, 1955), 978-0811201810 ImperceptibleIt withers in the world,This flower-like human heart. p. 46 One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese (1976) One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese, trans. Kenneth Rexroth (New Directions Publishing, 1976), 978-0811206198 Yumeji ni waAshi mo yasumezuKayoedo moUtsutsu ni hitomeMisbigoto wa arazu Following the roadsOf dream to you, my feetNever rest. But one glimpse of youIn reality would beWorth all these many nights of love. p. 33 Hito ni awanTsuki no naki ni waOmoiokiteMune hashiribi niKokoro yakeori You do not comeOn this moonless night.I wake wanting you.My breasts heave and blaze.My heart burns up. p. 34 Women Poets of Japan (1982) Women Poets of Japan, trans. Kenneth Rexroth with Ikuko Atsumi (New Directions Publishing, 1982), 978-0811208208 I fell asleep thinking of him,and he came to me.If I had known it was only a dreamI would never have awakened. p. 14 Although I come to you constantlyover the roads of dreams,those nights of loveare not worth one waking touch of you. p. 15 He does not come.Tonight in the dark of the moonI wake wanting him.My breasts heave and blaze.My heart chars. p. 15 Helen Craig McCullough's translations Kokin Wakashū: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry (1985) Kokin Wakashū: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry, trans. Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985), 978-0804712583 Hana no iro wautsurinikeri naitazura niwa ga mi yo ni furunagame seshi ma ni Alas! The beautyof the flowers has fadedand come to nothing,while I have watched the rain,lost in melancholy thought. p. 35 Aki no yo mona nomi narikeriau to iebakoto zo to mo nakuakenuru mono o Autumn nights, it seems,are long by repute alone:scarcely had we metwhen morning's first light appeared,leaving everything unsaid. p. 142 Iro miedeutsurou mono wayo no naka nohito no kokoro nohana ni zo arikeru So much I have learned:the blossom that fades away,its color unseen,is the flower in the heartof one who lives in this world. p. 174 Wabinurebami o ukikusa none o taetesasou mizu arabainamu to zo omou In this forlorn stateI find life dreary indeed:if a stream beckoned,I would gladly cut my rootsand float away like duckweed. p. 206 Quotes about Komachi Her beauty may be legendary but her rank as one of the greatest erotic poets in any language is not. Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi, The Burning Heart: Women Poets of Japan'' (New York: Seabury Press, 1977), p. 141 External links Category:9th century births Category:Poets from Japan Category:Japanese women