[nothing in the world is usual today] by Izumi Shikibu tr. Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani

— Izumi Shikibu, from The Ink Dark Moon Love Poems

Things I Want Decided

by Izumi Shikibu

Which shouldn’t exist in this world, the one who forgets or the one who is forgotten? Which is better, to love one who has died or not to see each other when you are alive? Which is better, the distant lover you long for or the one you see daily without desire? Which is the least unreliable among fickle things— the swift rapids, a flowing river, or this human world?

What colour is this blowing autumn wind, that it can stain my body with its touch?

~Izumi Shikibu

Izumi Shikibu, tr. by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi, from Women Poets of Japan

[Text ID: “I keep my heart burning”]

The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu

The Fear - Clementine Von Radics // Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey // Izumi Shikibu (from The Ink Dark Moon translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani)

“Although the wind ...” by Izumi Shikibu tr. by Jane Hirshfield

the phantom of the opera (2004) dir. joel schumacher / the ink dark moon love poems, izumi shikibu

To a man who said we should meet, even if it were only for a single time

Even if I now saw you

only once,

I would long for you

through worlds,

worlds.

Izumi Shikibu c. 976

Things I want decided ~ Izumi Shikibu

Nothing in the world is usual today.

This is the first morning.

—Izumi Shikibu (trans. Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Oratani, from The Ink Dark Moon)

Even if I now saw you only once, I would long for you through worlds, worlds.

— Izumi Shikibu, "Meeting Only Once" in The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan (Vintage, 1990)

April 9, 2023: Come Quickly, Izumi Shikibu

Come Quickly Izumi Shikibu

Come quickly—as soon as these blossoms open, they fall. This world exists as a sheen of dew on flowers.

 translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani

--

Other short poems and poems in translation.

Today in: 

2022: Heretic That I Am, Tomás Q. Morín 2021: The World Has Need of You, Ellen Bass 2020: Annus Mirabilis, R. A. Villanueva 2019: This Page Ripped Out and Rolled into a Ball, Brendan Constantine 2018: Winter Stars, Larry Levis 2017: In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever, Wanda Coleman 2016: The cat’s song, Marge Piercy 2015: The Embrace, Mark Doty 2014: No. 6, Charles Bukowski 2013: A Schoolroom in Haiti, Kenneth Koch 2012: Track 5: Summertime, Jericho Brown 2011: Death, Is All, Ana Božičević 2010: Heaven, William Heyen 2009: April in Maine, May Sarton 2008: Making Love to Myself, James L. White 2007: Publication Date, Franz Wright 2006: Living in the Body, Joyce Sutphen 2005: Aberration (The Hubble Space Telescope before repair), Rebecca Elson

The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu