Day Thirty-Eight, and Millenium-Old Heartbreak….
Posted by Elisa Beatty Feb 16 2011, 3:03 am
Here are three poignant poems by a woman named Ono No Komachi, Japanese poet of the 9th century (translated by Kenneth Rexroth in the wonderful collection, LOVE POEMS FROM THE JAPANESE):
You do not come
You do not come
On this moonless night.
I wake wanting you.
My breasts heave and blaze.
My heart burns up.
********
Although I come to you constantly
over the roads of dreams,
those nights of love
are not worth one waking touch of you.
********
Doesn’t he realize
that I am not
like the swaying kelp
in the surf,
where the seaweed gatherer
can come as often as he wants.
Addison
Wow. I love the second one. Thanks for giving me another reason to head to Barnes and Noble today. : )
It’s a gorgeous collection…incredible evocations of yearning (through several centuries of poets). Well worth the trip to B & N!!
Hey, Elisa-
You’ve inspired me — I’ve been wanting to nibble into some poetry. This is like — very bitable. (g)
And, it was great to meet you Saturday at the SFARWA meeting! Felt so serendipitous and it was such a pleasure to get to thank you in person for your work supporting this terrific festival!
I’m up to 36 points–meaning still a lot to do in the next week or so. I think I can. . . I think I can. . .
–Lisa
So glad to be doing some inspiring!!! And you WILL make your goal!!!
It was fun running into you Saturday (I mentioned it on the brag blog post for Sunday)….I tried to email you to see which swag prize you wanted, but I’m not sure the email went through. Can you email me directly at eliseam @ aol.com? Much thanks!!
These poems are lovely! I’m not usually a poetry person, but you’re right, very evocative.
I just realized I hadn’t come over here all week. I didn’t get to check in on Friday because of working an unexpected double shift, but I did work hard to catch up. I’ve finished another book, and since then I’ve started revisions on an old NaNoWriMo book (you know how THOSE are! LOL) and worked on my synopsis for a book that I’ve been querying. So, small bites daily = lots of progress!
Wow, Natalie! You’ve been covering an amazing amount of territory!!
Glad you’re enjoying the poetry–I find it really moving to read words like that from centuries ago…. Romantic love has been a powerful force for humans across cultures and across millenia. Nice to be reminded of that.