The name Ono-No-Komachi personifies beauty and mystery in Japan. From 834-880AD she was Poetess at the imperial court—“above the clouds”— where poetry competitions were judged by the Emperor. When she disappeared from court life, priests claimed that she supported herself as a beggar. Artists, sculptors and dramatists made her story immortal. And her celebrated beauty still breathes through her poems.
“Oh, only in name is the autumn night long,
For when we two meet, ere we speak, ere we know,
It is dawn.”
“Aki no yo mo
Na no mi narikeri
Au to ieba
Kotozo tomo naku
Akenuru mono wo.”
“One day while longing for my love, I fell asleep, and lo, there he was in a dream,
since then my certain hope is placed on fleeting dreams.”
“Utatane* ni
Koishiki toki wa
Nubatamano
Yumecho mono wa
Tanomi someteki.”
[* Utatane is to nap or doze. It is a word never used to describe regular sleep at night.]
“The flowers fade, ‘tis true, yet by the changing of their colors foretell their end,
but love, the flower of the human heart—in life—that may be withered ere it gives a sign.”
“Iro miyede
Utsuro mono wa
Yo no naka no
Hito no kokoro no
Hana ni zo arikeru.”
“Overwhelmed with loneliness and disappointment,
I am now as a drifting weed on the face of the waters.
Why should I not float away with the current of the stream that invites?”
“Wabi nureba
Mi wo ukikusa no
Ne wo tayete
Sasau midzu araba
Inan to zo omou.”
Reference
1. Mme. Yukio Ozaki, “Ono-No-Komachi”, 1910.
