(All images are from Hokusai’s series of ‘Poems Explained by a Wet Nurse.’
The woodcuts were taken from Visipix.com’s site. The poems are my own.
The series was incomplete, so there are not quite 100. I shall post on ten
sites, to break them up.)
(Visipix.com)
I’ll leave the island.
Abalone girls may dive,
but I’m going home.
(Visipix.com)
Virgin daughters dance.
I wish we could trap angels
and de-flower them.
(Visipix.com)
First love was a spring:
then a waterfall; torrent…
now a deep rock pool.
(Visipix.com)
Sometimes love is like
the complicated pattern
on kimono cloth.
No 15 or 16
(Visipix.com)
In Tatta’s blue stream,
red Maple leaves look just like
roosters’ talon prints.
(Visipix.com)
Together, aboard,
we sail through Sumi Bay. Waves
rock us on the deck.
(Visipix.com)
Such a tiny thing!
How could this reed build a house?
What can our love do?
(Visipix.com)
In Naniwa Bay,
I hope that you will meet me,
though I risk my life.
Candia Comes Clean 