Women Poets of JapanKenneth Rexroth, 渥美育子 In this collection (originally published by The Seabury Press in 1977 as The Burning Heart, Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi have assembled representative works of seventy-seven poets. Staring with the Classical Period (645-1604 A.D.), characterized by the wanka and tanka styles, followed by haiku poets of the Tokugawa period (to 1867), the subsequent modern tanka and haiku poets, and including the contemporary school of free verse--Women Poets of Japan records twelve hundred years of poetic accomplishment. Included are biographical notes on the individual poets, an essay on Japanese women and literature, and a table of historical periods. |
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Common terms and phrases
12th Century Anthology Atsumi Ikuko autumn beautiful became Buddhism cherry blossoms CHIGETSU-NI Chino Masako CHIYO-NI color DAIBU death dream Emperor Empress erotic flowers free verse Fujiwara FUKUDA CHIYO-NI geisha girl haiku HAIKU POETS heart Heian court Heian Period HITOMARO husband Ibaragi Noriko Ikuko Atsumi Imperial ISE TAYU Ishigaki Rin Izumi Shikibu Japan Japanese women Kamakura Kanai Mieko KASA NO IRATSUME KENREI MON-IN Kokinshu KOMACHI Kyōto LADY ISE lived lover magazine Manyō Manyōshū Mitsuhashi Takajo moon mother Mountain Murasaki Shikibu Myōjō Nakamura Chio night novel ONO NO KOMACHI Otomo poems POETS Yosano Akiko PRINCESS NUKADA SAKANOE NO IRATSUME Shiraishi Kazuko Shōguns Shōnagon SHUNZEI'S DAUGHTER songs sorrow Sumiko Tada Chimako Taira Takeko Takiguchi Masako Tale of Genji tanka tanka poet TAYU Tekkan tion Tokugawa Tomioka translation waka ward wife woman women poets women writers write written Yagi Mikajo Yamakawa Tomiko YOSAMI YOSANO AKIKO YOSHIHARA SACHIKO
Popular passages
Page 24 - The memories of long love gather like drifting snow, poignant as the mandarin ducks who float side by side in sleep. MURASAKI SHIKIBU Akazome Emon (?-1027) In my heart's depth I keep our secret smothered although this morning I suffer like a snipe scratching its feathers. I can no longer tell dream from reality. Into what world shall I awake from this bewildering dream? AKAZOME EMON I, who cut off my sorrows like a woodcutter, should spend my life in the mountains. Why do I still long for the floating...
Page 73 - When, with breaking heart, I realize this world is only a dream, the oak tree looks radiant.
Page 87 - I know better than he about this matter, what good purpose can his prattle serve? Knowledge is not reality. Experience belongs to the past. Let those who lack immediacy be silent. Let observers be content to observe. I am all alone, totally, utterly, entirely on my own, gnawing my lips, holding my body rigid, waiting on inexorable fate. There is only one truth. I shall give birth to a child, truth driving outward from my inwardness. Neither good nor bad; real, no sham about it. With the first labor...
Page 39 - Yokobue (Flute Player) (12th Century) How can I complain that you have shaved your hair? Since I can never again pull your heartstrings like a catalpa wood bow, I have become a nun following your Way. Shizuka (The dancing-girl mistress of Yoshitsune) (12th Century) How I long for the man who climbed Mt. Yoshino plunging through the white snow lying thick on its heights. Lady Horikawa (12th Century) How long will it last?
Page 123 - ... (Chinese saying). WOMAN It is a being somewhat like a well. When you drop a well bucket you will find restlessness deep in the well. . . . That she is herself is more difficult than water is water just as it's difficult for water to go beyond water she and I are linked in mutual love who once betrayed each other two mirrors who reflected each other When I escape from her, I incessantly am forced to be her and when I confront her...
Page 107 - My mirror is always a little taller than I am. It laughs a little later than I laugh. I blush like a boiled crab, and cut off a projection of myself with my nail scissors. When I let my lips approach the mirror, it blurs, and I vanish beyond my sighs, as a nobleman disappears behind his crest, and a blackguard behind his tattoo. My mirror is the cemetery of smiles. Traveler, when you come to Lakaidaimon, tell them that there stands here a grave, painted white with heavy makeup, with only wind blowing...
Page 87 - Pains I am sick today, sick in my body, eyes wide open, silent, I lie on the bed of childbirth. Why do I, so used to the nearness of death, to pain and blood and screaming, now uncontrollably tremble with dread? A nice young doctor tried to comfort me, and talked about the joy of giving birth. Since I know better than he about this matter, what good purpose can his prattle serve? Knowledge is not reality. Experience belongs to the past. Let those who lack immediacy be silent. Let observers be content...
Page 12 - We will never meet again face to face. I pray that the clouds may rise over Stone River So I can always see him in memory. YOSAMI, WIFE OF HITOMARO Lady Kii (8th Century) I know the reputation of the idle ways of the beach of Takashi. I will not go near them, for I would surely wet my sleeves.
Page 14 - Japan 9th century 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.
Page 36 - Around my pillow in my dreams the perfume of orange blossoms floated, like the fragrance of the sleeves of the man who is gone.