Name: The Ink Dark Moon
Rating: 4.233333333333333 (15 reviews)
ISBN: 9780679729587

Ono no Komachi

Izumi Shikibu

Translations of selected Japanese poems by women of the ancient court of Japan are accompanied by explanatory notes

Love Poems

The Ink Dark Moon

miya

marta

Faith Ho 

“Do you not know / this world / is a waking dream?”

picked this up in a sort of mood, breezed through it in a night or two. i can’t imagine how much more beautiful these poems are when read in japanese — even in english, they are undeniably moving. written elegantly, a collection of simply crafted poems that elucidate elusive feelings. of course, about love, but also capturing the essence of that particular liminal space of night. 

reading the intro was also really interesting—a glimpse into the world of the japanese court, and women’s place in it, and the power and prestige of literature. and of course, huge admiration for these women; simultaneously a sense of melancholy. 

“Watching the moon / at dawn, / solitary, mid-sky, / I knew myself completely, / no part left out.” 
“Is this love reality / or a dream? / I cannot know, / when both reality and dreams / exist without existing.” 
“The way I must enter / leads through darkness to darkness / O moon above the mountains’ rim, / please shine a little further / on my path.” (written on her deathbed)

side note: strangely, this really made me think of “sad steps” (sidney; larkin)

These translated poems were written by 2 ladies of the Heian court of Japan between the ninth and eleventh centuries A.D. The poems speak intimately of their authors' sexual longing, fulfillment and disillusionment.

The Ink Dark Moon Love Poems

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