National Poetry Month: Yosano Akiko

[retsuko]

As many of the wonderful people on my friends list have posted, April is National Poetry Month in the States. I thought I would share a few translated tanka and modern poems from my favorite Japanese poet, Yosano Akiko. All of these are taken from the compilation River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko, translated by Sam Hamill and Keiko Gibson; copyright 1996 Shambhala Press.

By a nameless stream,
small and very beautiful,
last night spent alone--
these broad, desolate fields
in the harsh summer dawn.

~~~

Does the pale priest see,
just after sunset, the girl
who dreams beneath
a flowering pink tree
this beautiful spring evening?

~~~

Agreed, we have
no talent for poetry.
We smile. This love
will last a twenty thousand years.
Is that a long time or brief?

And, cut for general propriety, a few more erotic poems:

Don't complain to me,
don't hesitate, just hurry
to meet those soft hands
that are patiently waiting
to help you out of your clothes.

~~~

Following his bath,
I gave my handsome lover
my best purple robe
to protect him from the cold.
He blushed, and was beautiful.

~~~

What can I put in
my burning mouth now the blood
from my lover's finger--
he asked me to kiss it--
begins to dry on my lips.

Comments

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Agreed, we have
no talent for poetry.
We smile. This love
will last a twenty thousand years.
Is that a long time or brief?

I love this.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

Me, too. It was a reading at my wedding. :)