Author Topic: Ono no Komachi (Read 326 times)

SonnenKinder · « **on:** May 14, 2010, 09:31:45 PM »

Very little is known about this Japanese poetess, and most of it is legendary. She lived around 850 C.E. (b. 834?) during the Heian period. The story about her is that she was a woman of unparallelled beauty in her youth and enjoyed the attention of many suitors. She was, however, haughty and cruel, breaking many hearts. She was punished by living to an old age and dying as a destitute and ugly hag in loneliness. The legend is almost certainly false, but the passionate nature of her loves survives (minus the didactic ending) to this day. In fact, the town of Ogachi in Akita prefecture celebrates an annual Komachi Festival on the second Sunday of June (legend has it that she was born in the village of Ono in Ogachi). There is a shrine dedicated to her. Enjoy some of excerpts from her poetry translated into english by different ppz. :happy:

On such a night as this
When no moon lights your way to me,
I wake, my passion blazing,
My breast a fire raging, exploding flame
While within me my heart chars.

-*-

The flowers withered
Their color faded away
While meaninglessly
I spent my days in the world
And the long rains were falling.

-*-

A thing which fades
With no outward sign
Is the flower
Of the heart of man
In this world!

-*-

Though I visit him
Ceaselessly
In my dreams,
The sum of all those meetings
Is less than a single waking glimpse.

-*-

In waking daylight,
Then, oh then, it can be understood;
But when I see you
Shrinking from those hostile eyes
Even in my dreams: that is misery itself.

-*-

In this bay
There is no seaweed
Doesn't he know it --
The fisherman who persists in coming
Until his legs grow weary?

-*-

More heart-wrenching than
To sear my body with live coals
Against my flesh,
Bidding farewell on Miyakoshima's shore
As you part for the capital.

-*-

Did he appear,
because I fell asleep
thinking of him?
If only I'd known I was dreaming
I'd never have wakened.

-*-

The autumn night
is long only in name --
We've done no more
than gaze at each other
and it's already dawn.

-*-

When longing for him
Tortures me beyond endurance,
I reverse my robe --
Garb of night, black as leopard-flower berries --
And wear it inside out.

Author Topic: Ono no Komachi (Read 326 times)

SonnenKinder

Ono no Komachi

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